Nikki Grimes

Robust, textured collages combine with upbeat poems about poetry, emotions, and everyday activities.

• Purchase book

When Danitra leaves the city for a summer with her family in the country, she and best friend Zuri write to each other about their days. The free verse and softly hued, realistic illustrations convey the warmth of both summer and the girls' friendship.

• Purchase book

Zuri and Danitra are best friends, but have very different responses to school from first day jitters all the way to the halfway mark of the school year. Poems combine with luminous watercolors to chronicle the girls’ range of experiences and concerns.

• Purchase book

Well composed photographs on pastel pages combine with playful poetry to celebrate everyday pleasures from playing games to enjoying music.

• Purchase book

In a series of poems, Zuri extols the virtues and shortcomings of her forever friend, Danitra Brown. Set in their urban neighborhood, handsome watercolors illustrate this fresh and often poignant camaraderie.

• Purchase book

Impressionistic paintings and gentle verse reveal a child’s concern about the new man in his mother’s life and the growing affection between them.

• Purchase book

Shoes of all types are used to introduce children with varied aspirations and backgrounds. Slightly abstracted illustrations echo the warmth and joy of the varied collection of poetry.

• Purchase book

Grandma Mac is not like many other grandparents. And she’s definitely not the stay-at-home kind. Told in verse, a girl relates how she and her independent Grandma Mac come to know and appreciate one another.

• Purchase book

After aviator Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman is lost in a plane crash, those who knew her celebrate her life. Different voices come alive in small portraits and beautifully crafted full-page scenes as individuals tell stories in free verse to present Bessie's unusual and heroic story. A biographical note extends the introduction to this early aviator.

• Purchase book

The joy of Christmas is told from a child's point of view in a series of poems, illustrated with warm and gentle illustrations. The universal pleasure in the season is set in the cozy warmth of a loving family.

• Purchase book

A family expresses the universal joy in the arrival of a new baby. Luminous language and illustrations introduce baby to the many small pleasures all around us, from sand between toes to sticky peanut butter. Parents and grandparents can share this story with children to recall their arrival into the family.

• Purchase book

Two sisters mourn the death of their older brother. This short novel is told in alternating voices of the girls, to reveal one family’s process of grieving. Sensitive illustrations augment the gentle, questioning nature of the text.

• Purchase book