In Lovely Blue: The Harp of Heaven

25th Annual Border Voices Anthology

Give you -- and your child -- the beauty of the world. Thousands of students in the United States and Mexico have gone on to brilliant careers in the creative arts after attending Border Voices workshops. The secret to that success is distilled in this marvelously funny, and always insightful book. The book contains marvelous poems by students ranging in age from 8 to 18, as well as powerful pieces by professional poets and a writer of TV shows, essays and poetry (that's Jack Webb). And we mustn't forget Amy Roost, a woman celebrated for her long but ultimately successful search for a lost sister whom she'd never met. If you want to have fun while learning the simple secrets of great writing, this is where to look. We'd love to give you excerpts from the book that illustrate all this, but that is not considered appropriate. Those excerpts MIGHT include the whimsical "acknowledgments," where the editor both praises and regrets all the applause his books have received, applause that has led to years of brow-furrowed work. Another excerpt? Probably the poem "As the Moon Wanders," which explores the secret of true love. And then there's that astonishing poem by a 4th grader, who writes like a a Nobel Prize-winning 50-year-old, all about how he saw himself in a vision, in a former life in Egypt, in the days of the pharaohs. Fun, yes.