This Big Sky - Softcover

Pat Mora, a popular presenter across the country at conferences, campuses, libraries, and schools, speaks and offers workshops on literacy, creativity, leadership, the writing process, and serving diverse populations. "Sharing Bookjoy: Creative Literacy Leaders" and "ZING! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students" are among her more popular themes.

The author of award-winning books of nonfiction and poetry for adults and of many children's books, Pat received honorary doctorates in letters from North Carolina State University and SUNY Buffalo and is an honorary member of the American Library Association. Among her other awards are the 2006 National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, a Visiting Carruthers Chair at the University of New Mexico, a Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship.

A former teacher, university administrator, and consultant, Pat is the founder of the family literacy initiative El día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children's Day/Book Day (Día), now housed at the American Library Association. The yearlong commitment to linking all children to books, languages, and cultures and of sharing what Pat calls "bookjoy," culminates in national celebrations in April.

Pat was named one of the "Fifty Most Inspiring Authors in the World" by Poets & Writers magazine in February 2010.

Mora (Toms and the Library Lady, 1997, etc.) celebrates the people, creatures, and landscapes of the American southwest through poetry of mixed quality. Some of the poems have an ear-pleasing music that lifts the words from the page and sets them dancing: ``Coyote spies/new moon, slight/grin, high/in the sky./Coyote licks/cold, white/shine, mouthful/of stars.'' Others are both postured and tortured: ``Two ravens spread their wings, rise/into whispers/of great pines, over mountains blue/with memories.'' Jenkins's accompanying cut-paper collages possess the same prismatic energy he brought to his Biggest, Fastest, Strongest (1995, not reviewed). Occasionally Mora and Jenkins are at odds, as in ``Tall Walking Woman,'' where Mora is all minute observation and Jenkins all atmosphere, but when their efforts fuse, they lyrically summon the special qualities of a singular landscape. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.