Learn More About Kwame Alexander At Warsaw Library
By Amy Mann
Children’s Services
WARSAW — If you think all authors are somber and introverted, you haven’t met Kwame Alexander. You can find him on YouTube.
“The Power of Yes,” a philosophy he has embraced for most of his life, is the focus of his 2017 Ted Talk in Herndon, Va. He also has a YouTube show, “Bookish,” with his touring partner Randy Preston. They’ve been too busy to work on that lately, however. Alexander is currently in London, working on a new book and visiting schools. He even made a surprise visit to a young British fan celebrating his Bar Mitzvah.
Kwame Alexander has become a star amongst the new crop of diverse authors. He visited Grace College in 2018 with the aforementioned Randy Preston, who played the guitar and bantered with him as he spoke and recited poetry. They were promoting “Swing,” a chapter book about boys and baseball. Told in verse, his books were hard-sells to the literary community. “Boys don’t read poetry” was the refrain he heard many times. Those voices turned out to be blatantly wrong. Alexander is now a New York Times best-selling author and has won the Newbery Award for his book “The Crossover,” a story about basketball and family told powerfully through verse.
Warsaw Community Public Library offers many examples of Alexander’s brilliance. He has published poetry, short stories and young adult novels. In 2020, he won the coveted Caldecott Award for his book “The Undefeated,” a history of black people in the United States. Beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson, this picture book includes resources at the end for further research.
The library has many things happening in its children’s services department in April. Story Time Live will continue at 11 a.m. on Mondays. WCPL will be featuring a special guest in its Earth Day edition on April 19. Shelly Heckert, a.k.a. “Mother Earth,” will be joining. The last Kids Write of the year will take place on Zoom on April 13. Along with to-go craft kits available every other Tuesday, make something for a garden during Blooming Art on April 21 on Facebook. Watch for Bedtime Stories on Facebook starting at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. Catch Dr. Bookenstein on (actual) Earth Day, April 22. For more information, visit the library’s website.