A New School Year: Stories in Six Voices

Six children, one in each grade from kindergarten to 5th, share their thoughts and anxieties as the new school year starts. Short, sensitive poems combine with lightly colored illustrations to introduce each individual. The voices and concerns of the children from diverse backgrounds are both relatable and plausible.

Experience the breadth and depth of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry. From his childhood in poverty and his early promise as a poet through his struggles to find acceptance as a writer and his tumultuous romance with his wife, to his immense fame and his untimely death, Dunbar’s story is one of triumph and tragedy. But his legacy remains in his much-beloved poetry — told in both Standard English and in dialect — which continues to delight and inspire readers today.