PANAMA CITY — An audience of third-graders in the Hiland Park Elementary media center variously cheered, got quiet and raised their hands to ask questions Thursday during a visit from a nationally acclaimed author.
While at Hiland Park, the students gave writer Kwame Alexander a basketball, fitting for a man who made sports references during his visit.
Alexander’s visit to the school was made possible by the Bay County Public Library as part of the annual BooksAlive event. Alexander’s books include “The Crossover,” winner of the 2015 Newbery Award, which is like the Super Bowl for children’s books, he told students.
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But on Thursday, Alexander read from another of his recent books: “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band.” The book included references to jazz figures with characters such as Thelonius Monkey and Mules Davis. During his live reading, during which school employees with copies of the book turned pages as he went through the story, Alexander called several students up to mime the sounds of musical instruments.
“Who knows how to play the guitar?” Alexander asked the third-graders.
They all played air guitar, making the appropriate noises.
After the presentation, he took questions from the students.
Student Jayden Saldana asked how books are made. Alexander said you get an idea and put it on paper, then write and edit it. Alexander mentioned the publishing and design side of making a book.
Another student asked why he started writing books. According to Alexander, his mother and father were writers and made him read books every day. He didn’t like it at first. In college, he wanted to be a pediatrician, but in his sophomore year he took a class with the poet Nikki Giovanni, which influenced him to consider a writing career.
Alexander asked the students what poetry is, prompting some to answer “smooth” and “rhyming.”
“It can make you jiggle and wiggle,” said student Kirsten Tolbert.
Alexander said his first poem went back to the age of 12, when he wrote a Mother’s Day poem for his mom.
Looking back on winning the Newbery, Alexander said he is grateful for how he got there. He recounted his parents telling him stories to cheer him up and getting him to look up words when he wanted to know their meaning.
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Although now a successful writer, the road was not always smooth. “The Crossover” was turned down by publishers 29 times, Alexander said. Another book took him four years to write, with 15 rewritings, he said. He decided to publish it himself after being rejected by several publishers.
Asked about continuing despite rejection, Alexander said he’s always been confident.
“Books have the power to always make you feel better,” he said.