Nikki Giovanni: Hip Hop Speaks to Children

I'm excited to announce that Nikki Giovanni's brand new book, Hip Hop Speaks to Children is on its way to stores near you (and is already available at Amazon). And guess what? The accompanying CD includes my musical version of Sterling A Brown's poem, Long Track Blues. How cool is that?

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is "a celebration of poetry with a beat." It includes work by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, The Sugar Hill Gang, Lauryn Hill, and dozens of other poets and musicians.

I've already seen a couple nice reviews online, and of course, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this little tidbit from Biblio File:

"The hamboning version of "The Pool players" and Josephine Cameron's sung version of Sterling Brown's "Long Track Blues" are tracks I can listen to over and over again."

Other hot-off-the-presses blog reviews can be found at:
Becky's Book Reviews
Publisher's Weekly
School Library Journal

Here's a cool video of Nikki Giovanni introducing the book. You'll get a great glimpse into some of the stellar illustrations by Kristen Balouch, Michele Noiset, Jeremy Tugeau, Alicia Vergel de Dios, and Damian Ward.