Description Share Post This is Not a Small Voice Poems by Black Poets Selected by Traci N.Todd, illustrated by Jade Orlando (Nosy Crow) Traci N. Todd introduces This is Not a Small Voice, sharing her introduction to poetry; beginning with her birth. Then again, she shares how this collection evolved, with poems from a wide selection of black poets. What’s more, it includes new works, and a rich variety of styles. It seems right that this beautiful book opens with Langston Hughes’ The Dream Keeper, where we’re invited to bring him all ‘our dreams ‘that [he] may wrap them/ In a blue cloud- cloth/ Away from the too rough fingers of the world‘. Thereafter, we step into ‘the dance of/ Earth’s guests’ with John Agard’s Come All You Little Persons. There is power in the nuance of the verse, for example, Lucille Clifton’s Why Some People Be Made at Me Sometimes. What’s more, there’s power in the strength of messages, including Dana Merrett- Silvera’s, Silent Talking. For example, ‘There his healing in silence/ There is hearing in silence/ There is knowing in silence.’ Then again, there are moments in Black history, including recent history, to honour, such as Black Lives Matter with the extract from Amanda Gorman’s Fury & Faith. Like Counting on Katherine, for example, Bookwagon considers This is Not a Small Voice essential to every school library, every library, generally. It is a book for keeping, reading from, knowing and using. What’s more, Jade Orlando’s pictures celebrate and enhance the meaning, strength and glory of this work. We are proud to welcome this book of poetry aboard.
