Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat with CD (Audio) (Poetry Speaks Experience)

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INCLUDED IN THE BOOKLIST TOP 10 ART BOOKS FOR YOUTH

Our consensus is Hip Hop Speaks to Children is the most essential poetry purchase to make this year.

The poetry is enough.

The illustrations are enough.

The CD is enough.

Together, this book is a treasure of which you cannot get enough.

We shall accomplish much this year. Children will be encouraged to put their words to poetry and beats. Teachers will be encouraged to allow the artists to speak to children.

-Diane Chen, School Library Journal blog Practically Paradise

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Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a celebration of poetry with a beat.

Poetry can have both a rhyme and a rhythm. Sometimes it is obvious; sometimes it is hidden. But either way, make no mistake, poetry is as vibrant and exciting as it gets. And when you find yourself clapping your hands or tapping your feet, you know you've found poetry with a beat

Like Poetry Speaks to Children, the New York Times Bestselling classic poetry book and CD that started it all, Hip Hop Speaks to Children is meant to be the beginning of a journey of discovery.

READ more than 50 remarkable poems and songs

HEAR poetry's rhymes and rhythms from Queen Latifah to Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes to A Tribe Called Quest and more * Also hear part of Martin Luther Kind's original I Have a Dream speech, followed by the remarkable live performance of the speech by Nikki Giovanni, Oni Lasana and Val Gray Ward. * The Hip Hop Speaks to Children CD contains more than 30 performances, either by the artists who created them, or as unique interpretations by admiring poets and artists.

DISCOVER Langston Hughes's elegant gospel The Negro Speaks of Rivers, A Tribe Called Quest's playful Ham 'N' Eggs, Sterling A. Brown's hard-luck Long Track Blues, Gwendolyn Brooks's wake-up call We Real Cool, Kanye West's lovely Hey Mama, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s awe-inspiring I Have a Dream.

This is a collection of rhymes and rhythms unlike any other poetry book

Celebrate with remarkable poets, including:

Eloise Greenfield

Mos Def

Lucille Clifton

Oscar Brown Jr.

Tupac Shakur

Maya Angelou

Queen Latifah

Nikki Grimes

Walter Dean Myers

Common

and, of course, Nikki Giovanni

Poems Include:

Ego Tripping

Rapper's Delight

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Hey Mama

Ham 'N' Eggs

Everything Is Everything

Ladies First

MORE PRAISE FOR HIP HOP SPEAKS TO CHILDREN

With its archival recordings of poems read by the poets themselves, Hip Hop] reminds everyone that poetry springs from an oral tradition.

-Publishers Weekly

This is the way to get children interested in reading and loving poetry. ... A great book for both teachers and parents.

- Valerie Lewis, owner of Hicklebee's children's bookstore

The poems, the artwork, the CD...all complement each other to create a wonderful experience.

-Becky Laney, Becky Laney's Books blog

Love this book. I think it is a K-8 must-have for classrooms and libraries. Like I said it is packed and it may be (at first) intimidating to young readers. But, once they hear some of the audio, spend time with the illustrations, and experience some of the poetry, I think it will become a favorite.

-Franki Sibberson, A Year of Reading blog

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a wonderfully composed collection of poems from writers like Eloise Greenfield to late rapper and poet, Tupac Shakur. ... Whether you read poetry or you hear it in a rap song, Giovanni's genius endeavor will inspire children of all ages to have fun while listening to poetry. Rap is poetry, right?

-Amy Bowllan, Amy Bowllan's Blog (a School Library Journal Blog)

I highly recommend this one for all collections. If the title didn't include the word children it'd be an excellent book all the way to high school. My coworkers and I are already talking about doing a Hip Hop poetry story time for our elementary school kids.

-Jennifer Rothschild, Biblio File blog

This is an incredibly powerful, beautiful and important book. Both the book and CD are stellar in quality and diversity. The artwork is amazing and I find myself pulling it out of the shelf over and over for just one more re-read. The grandchildren (ages 3 and 5) love it as well and ask to hear the CD while they pore over the pages and take breaks prancing around the room and singing to the beat. They KNOW all the poems in the book and learned them in a relatively short time, which I attribute to the power of the beat, and all the artists; the poets, the illustrators, the singers and spoken word artists. What an astounding thing when a book moves children so that they LEARN - quickly and enjoyably. This book is for all ages and I can't recommend it highly enough.

-Gina Ruiz, Blogcritics Magazine

"Like its companion volume, Poetry Speaks to Children, this eclectic collection is accompanied by a lively CD; the focus is on hip-hop, broadly defined as 'poetry with a beat.' In practice, Giovanni's definition yields a diverse crop of poems chiefly by African-Americans. Not all the works have a strong beat: the quiet lyricism of Hope Anita Smith has little in common with the pronounced rhythms of the Sugarhill Gang. The volume includes not only contemporary artists like Mos Def and Queen Latifah but poets from the Harlem Renaissance, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Elizabeth Swados. Even an edited version of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech is offered. Altogether, there are 51 selections from 42 poets, with about 30 performances on the CD, some original to the collection. The illustrations, by six different artists, compete for attention in a crowded design; readers may be better off availing themselves of the CD, which, with its archival recordings of poems read by the poets themselves, reminds everyone that poetry springs from an oral tradition. Ages 6 — up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

With contributions by such artists as Nikki Giovanni, Queen Latifah, and the Sugarhill Gang, this work is a celebration of poetry with a beat. "Hip Hop Speaks to Children" is meant to be the beginning of a journey of discovery. Includes an audio CD. Full color.

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a celebration of poetry with a beat. Like Poetry Speaks to Children, the classic book and CD that started it all, it's meant to be the beginning of a journey of discovery. Readers can immerse themselves in 51 selections from 42 poets and performers, and 30 performances on the audio CD, many recorded especially for this collection.

Some tracks on the CD are performed by the artists who created them, others are unique interpretations by admiring poets and artists. Hear a musical interpretation of Sterling Brown's poem Long Track Blues and a youth performance of Elizabeth Swados's poem Me plus much more

The audio CD also includes contributions from: Nikki Grimes Queen Latifah Langston Hughes Sugarhill Gang Charles R. Smith, Jr. Stetsasonic James Berry A Tribe Called Quest Gary Soto Eloise Greenfield