Book Description
for The Poet Upstairs by Judith Ortiz Cofer and Oscar Ortiz
From the Publisher
Juliana is too sick to go to school one cold, winter day. So she stays at home in bed and looks out her bedroom window. She watches as a tall lady in a red coat and hat carries her boxes of books and papers upstairs. Her mother has heard that the mysterious woman is a poet writing a book. Juliana loves books and canÍt wait to meet the poet upstairs. Juliana listens to the poetÍs typewriter clicking and clacking all day long, while outside the snow falls and people rush by bundled up in their coats. She dreams of a tiny tropical island ñsitting on the ocean like a green button on a blue dress,î the island home that her mother and the poet share. She dreams of red hibiscus flowers and beaches of white sand. The next day, she receives an invitation from the poet to come upstairs. Together, they write a poem about a big river that leads to the sea. As they make pictures with words, the walls of the cold apartment become a beautiful vista of mountains, palm trees, birds and flowers. That special day, poetry takes Juliana from her cold and ordinary apartment to a sparkling island habitat. Invoking Puerto Rican poet Julia de BurgosÍ famous poem about the Loiza River, Ortiz CoferÍs lyrical text is combined with Oscar OrtizÍs breathtaking illustrations of the natural world and the animals that inhabit it. This inspiring picture book for children ages 5 to 9 demonstrates the power of the written word as Juliana learns that poetry can change the world.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.