Stoop-Sitting By Elizabeth Acevedo (Grades 4-6)

Elizabeth Acevedo is best known for her verse novel, The Poet X, featuring an young Afro-Latina poet and her life in highschool. From the book, "Stoop-sitting" describes protagonist Xiomara's anxiety of the upcoming school year during the final week of summer. Acevedo's gentle yet vivid images, of children, fire-hydrant sprinkling, of drug-dealers, quietly paints Xiomara's native Harlem, stripping it of its negative connotations and adoring it with the love of a writer's pen.