Book Description
When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school English class and reads it aloud, poetry-slam-style, he kicks off a revolution. Soon his classmates are clamoring to have weekly poetry sessions. One by one, eighteen students take on the risky challenge of self-revelation.

About the Author
Nikki Grimes has written for very young children, middle readers, young adults and adults. She was born in Harlem in 1950, began writing when she was six and was a voracious reader throughout her childhood; she gave her first public poetry reading at a local library there when she was 13. Always a good student, Grimes began to falter when her father died when she was in high school. It was through the help of an English teacher, a Holocaust survivor, that she found the strength to focus and concentrate on school. She also met the writer James Baldwin, and he acted as her mentor until she graduated from high school.