Central Kansas Library System

In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

A celebration of Langston Hughes and African American authors he inspired, told through the lens of the party held at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 1991.

After Chirpie the bird escapes from her cage and flies into a tree, a group of poets decides that the best way to entice her down is to create a garden full of seeds, water, hiding places, and materials for building a nest.

When her family moves to the Kansas Territory in 1855, thirteen-year-old poet Lucy Thomkins searches for her purpose in life, while she witnesses the conflict between the proslavery Border Ruffians and the anti-slavery Insiders like her father.

"In this new collection of mysteries, everyone's favorite poet detective is back in action. When a prankster tangles all the school jump ropes into knots and gym is canceled, Marty pins down the culprit. When five machines are mysteriously found broken at the arcade, Marty jumps on the case. And when Mom's phone goes missing after a trip to the mall, Marty races against the clock to track it down before dinner. But can he still manage to make up rhymes...