Between accounts of Elgin’s athletic prowess, Jen inserts descriptions of civil rights activism that were happening at the same time. As he grew up, Elgin’s opportunities were limited because of the racism that surrounded him. Jen Bryant and Frank Morrison created Elgin’s world so that no matter how scant or rich the readers’ knowledge of basketball, they can relate to the fervor and passion of being immersed in a liberating pastime. In order to expand students’ understanding of refrain, teachers can find examples of uses by other poets on the website for the Center for Literacy in Primary Education (for younger students) or The Poetry Foundation (for older students). Teachers can use Above the Rim as a mentor text to teach about refrain as a literary device. Students can analyze the text and images that accompany each occurrence of the refrain, generating discussion about the big picture surrounding each situation. We asked Jen Bryant about her use of this refrain and she talks about how it emerged organically from all the footage she found in her research in which people commented that when they were watching Elgin play, they could not help but stop what they were doing and watch. The refrain “… people stopped what they were doing and watched” occurs in different contexts throughout Above the Rim. Refrains signal to readers that the writer wants them to pay attention to that particular detail. Jen’s poems appear frequently in anthologies for young readers and adults.Ī refrain is a poetic device that involves the repetition of a line or phrase at various intervals across a piece of text.

Other titles include Pieces of Georgia (IRA Young Adult Choices Pick) The Trial (1935 Lindbergh kidnapping trial, a Borders New Voices Pick) Kaleidoscope Eyes (a 1960’s–era novel, a Junior Library Guild Selection) The Fortune of Carmen Navarro (Paterson Prize for Young People) Georgia’s Bones, celebrating the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe and Music for the End of Time, based on a true WWII story.

Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball has won numerous awards including the 2021 Orbis Pictus Award. Jen’s novel in verse, Ringside 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial, is an Oprah Recommended Book for ages 12 and up. The third Bryant/Sweet book, The Right Word: Peter Mark Roget and His Thesaurus, won the Sibert Medal and a Caldecott Honor. Their second collaboration, A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, won an ALA Schneider Family Book Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus award, and a Sibert Honor. Her biography A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, received a Caldecott Honor.

Jen Bryant writes picturebooks, novels and poems for readers of all ages.

The Right Word by Jen Bryant