I am proud to announce that I am the 2019 recipient of the Nikki Grimes Artist in Residency Scholarship from the Highlights Foundation. To learn more, click on https://www.highlightsfoundation.org/12328/announcing-the-recipients-of-the-2019-artist-in-residency-and-visual-arts-scholarship/.

Nikki Grimes is an awesome, award-winning poet and author of numerous books for children.Garvey’s Choice is one of her many.

Garvey’s Choice by Nikki Grimes

Garvey’s Choice is a novel told through the ancient Japanese form of poetry called Tanka, which creates short poems of five lines with each line consisting of five or seven syllables.

Garvey loves outer space. He also loves to eat and is overweight. Garvey is a disappointment to his father who wants him to be an athlete like his sister. He can’t seem to do anything to please his father and that makes him feel sad and worthless.

The kids at school make fun of Garvey’s weight and call him cruel names, all except for his friend Joe. When Garvey joins the school chorus at Joe’s suggestion, he finally finds something that he is good at and makes a new friend. Manny, who is an albino and a great cook, inspires Garvey to accept who he is, extra weight and all. He also introduces Garvey delicious, healthy food.

Soon Garvey is eating healthy, losing weight, and becoming a star in the chorus. When his family attends a concert, Garvey finally makes his father proud. Turns out, his father sang in a band when he was young.

With spare, heart-felt language, Grimes uses the limitations of Tanka to give voice to the thoughts and emotions of Garvey. We feel his pain and his joy and grow with him as he learns to love himself.

For more information about author Nikki Grimes, visit her website: www.nikkigrimes.com