Judith Ortiz’s picture book receives recognition
HOUSTON, TX—The Poet Upstairs, a children’s book by Judith Ortiz Cofer that invokes Julia de Burgos’ famous poem about the Loiza River, is a Junior Library Guild selected title.
The Junior Library Guild was founded in 1929 to help schools and public libraries secure the best new children’s and young adult books. The Junior Library Guild reviews books and is also a collection development service that helps save schools and libraries time and money by assisting them in acquiring top books for their students and customers. Each year JLG chooses forthcoming titles to their respected JLG Selection list. The selection is a unique accolade that tends to anticipate works’ future success.
Judith Ortiz Cofer’s lyrical story is combined with Oscar Ortiz’s breathtaking illustrations of the natural world in The Poet Upstairs, which The Children’s Bookshelf called, “an amazing tribute [that] introduces young readers to the importance of words and the power of writing.”
About the Author:
JUDITH ORTIZ COFER is the Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, an award-winning poet, novelist and prose writer whose work deals with her bilingual, bicultural experience as a Puerto Rican woman living on the Mainland. She is the author of numerous books, including her first picture book, ¡A bailar! Let’s Dance!; Animal Jamboree: Latino Folktales / La fiesta de los animals: leyendas Latinas; Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood, included in The New York Public Library’s Books For The Teen Age 1991 and recipient of a PEN citation, Martha Albrand Award for non-fiction, and a Pushcart Prize; and An Island Like You, recipient of the Pura Belpré Award and named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Her other books include If I Could Fly, Call Me María, The Meaning of Consuelo and The Year of Our Revolution.
About the illustrator:
OSCAR ORTIZ was born in Manhattan, New York. He was raised and educated in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Ortiz is a graduate of the Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and currently resides in Indian Trail, North Carolina, with his wife and children. He makes his debut as a children’s book illustrator with The Poet Upstairs.