Juan Felipe Herrera

Skatefate Juan Felipe Herrera

Jacket Description/Back: I wanted to roar outtouch things I had never touched. to see if it was true. was I still here was this life still here. on this side. whatever you call it dude. wanted to touch everything like van Gogh touched and smeared everything when he painted. so I wrote it and spoke it. maybe mama would hear me. cuz I could hear her. sayin' When your heart hurts, sing. wherever you go. Lucky Z has always lived on the edge he loved to skateboard, to drag race, to feel alive. But things have taken a turn he's living with new foster parents and a tragic past. An accident changed everything. And only his voice will set him free." Review Citations:

Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2011 (EAN 9780061432873, Hardcover)

Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 03/01/2011 (EAN 9780061432873, Hardcover)

Booklist 07/01/2011 pg. 56 (EAN 9780061432873, Hardcover)

Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2011 pg. 384 (EAN 9780061432873, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Herrera, Juan Felipe Juan Felipe Herrera is the U. S. Poet Laureate and was inspired by the fire-speakers of the early Chicano Movement and by heavy exposure to various poetry, jazz, and blues performance streams. His published works include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971 2007; Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream; Mayan Drifter: Chicano Poet in the Lowlands of the Americas; Thunderweavers/Tejedoras de Rayos; Laughing Out Loud, I Fly, a Pura Belpre Honor Book; Americas Award winners Crashboomlove and Cinnamon Girl; Calling the Doves, which won the Ezra Jack Keats Award; and Upside Down Boy, which was adapted into a musical. He has received the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship and previously served as California Poet Laureate. He has taught at both California State University, Fresno and University of California, Riverside and held the Tomas Rivera endowed chair in creative writing. He lives in Fresno, California.