Nelson, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems. Asheville, NC: Front Street Books, 2001.

2003 - 2004 William Allen White Children's Book Award master list, 2002 Connecticut Book Award in Children's Literature, Design, and Poetry, 2002 Newbery Honor Award, 2002 Coretta Scott King Honor Award, 2002 Notable Books for a Global Society-International Reading Association, 2002 Notable Children's Book-American Library Association, 2002 Best Book for Young Adults-American Library Association, 2002 Fanfare Boo-The Horn Book, 2002 Children's Books of Distinction Award-Riverbank Review, 2002 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People-The Children's Book Council & NCSS, 2002 CCBC Choices-Cooperative Children's Books Center, 2002 Notable Books for a Global Society-Children's Literature and reading Special Interest group of the IRA, 2002 Children's Literature Choice List, 2001 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award-Bank Street College of Education, 2001 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, 2001 National Book Award Finalist, 2001 Children's Media Award-Parent's Guide to Children's Media, Inc., 2001 Bulletin Blue Ribbon Winner for 2001-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 2001 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children.

"Marilyn Nelson writes about Carver with love and understanding .. .her poems are a a stunning tribute to a great and usually underestimated man."-Christian Science Sentinel

"The author uses beautiful language to express Carver's gift of observation, strong faith, and extraordinary accomplishments. The poem entitled "Ruellia Noctiflora" is an outstanding example of her ability to capture the excitement of looking at a familiar object through Carver's eyes. .High marks for this beautiful work of humanity and history."-Christian Home & School

"Nearly 60 poems, mostly short, have been arranged chronologically to tell the story of George Washington Carver. . The handsome book is footnoted with biographical detail and decorated with photographs."- New York Times Book Review

"By offering glimpses into George Washington Carver's life story through a series of lyrical poems, the structure of Nelson's books is as inspired as its occasional use of black-and-white photographs as illustrations. The poems are simple, sincere, and sometimes so beautiful they seem not works of artifice, but honest statements of pure, natural truths."- School Library Journal

"An unmatchable picture not only of Carver's life but also of his impact within his time as well as in history. .the book has a resonance and heart that will gratify the knowledgeable and naive alike (and that also invites reading aloud)."- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Each poem in this volume is a complete work on its own; many originally appeared in adult literary magazines. Accompanied by black-and-white archival photographs, the sequence of poems creates a powerful image of Carver as an independent, inspired man whose sense of purpose was only truly shaken by the deaths of those he loved, particularly his brother and Book T. Washington."-Riverbank Review

"These poems . are powerful, moving, and thorough."-The Book Report

"Nelson's brilliantly conceived telling of Carver's life through the voices of people who knew him, as well as his own, conveys complex perspectives about an era, bringing to poignant life the personality of 'the Professor' (as he came to be known) and the challenges he faced. Historical notes and archival photographs document the poems. (Nelson's The Fields of Praise won the 1998 Poets' Prize; this book deserves at least that much attention.)"- NAPRA ReView

"Strong and lyrical, this biography movingly recreates not only the key moments in Carver's remarkable life as an inventor and educator, but evokes the passion and emotions not available to the prose writer." -The Shy Librarian

"[Nelson] conjures a living, breathing, feeling, powerful presence as she writes of a life that was centered and made whole by deep religious faith, a passion for nature, a hunger for learning, and a heart of unmatched kindness from the time he was a small boy. . This work of tremendous creativity and imagination is grounded in the essentials of fact but soars into the realm of understanding that only knowledge of heart and soul can convey."-Cooperative Children's Book Center

"In Carver, Marilyn Nelson, like our best teachers, has managed to educate and inspire at once. This book belongs in classrooms across the curriculum as essential reading for learners of every age."- LYRE, Center for Literature for Young Readers, English Department, Youngstown State University, Ohio/online review

"One of the very few black Americans accorded great respect before the 1960s was botanist and educator George Washington Carver (1864?-1943). In a fine biography in poems, Nelson beautifully and movingly revives his reputation, made to seem paltry compared with that of such resuscitated firebrands as Garvey, Robeson, and DuBois."- Booklist

"An award-winning poet, Nelson crafts the poems to near transparency so as not to intrude upon the story she's chosen to tell. . She brings full circle not only Carver's story, but a poetic journey begun with her 1990 collection, The Homeplace, a sequence that tells of her father's experiences as one of that squadron."- ForeWord

"Nelson allows readers to see Carver as contemporaries might have seen him, with the "light of genius / through the dusky window of his skin." Footnote time lines and photographs of Carver and his effects fill in the barest facts of his life, framing the poems in a historic space. This poetry biography . will captivate readers with it uncommon sensitivity and soul."- VOYA

"Nelson's poems are vivid snapshots that together create an album of Carver's life."-Houston Chronicle

"The voices in these poems, rise up from the pages in characterful, cadenced lines. The poet has fused words in colors of light that illuminate the speakers and the person of George Washington Carver. Marilyn Nelson has crafted spare, singing lines that succeed in creating a biography in poems that brilliantly evoke Carver's life"- Ashley Bryan

"You know, if there is any justice, I just read The Pulitzer Prize winning book in poetry. Carver: A life in poems is a brilliant way of looking at that phenomenal, complicated man. Carver, himself, is so crucial to the American experience not only for his genius but also his heart. This book brings him so lyrically alive so much in the moment for all of us to experience. Oh, Marilyn Nelson, what a magnificent job you have done to bring the past so alive it looks like our future."- Nikki Giovanni

George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896 Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the rest of his life seeking solutions to the poverty among landless black farmers by developing new uses for soil-replenishing crops such as peanuts, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes. Carver's achievements as a botanist and inventor were balanced by his gifts as a painter, musician, and teacher.

This collection of poems by award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson provides a compelling and revealing portrait of Carver's complex, richly interior, profoundly devout life.