In Lovely Blue: The Harp of Heaven

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 8-18, as well as powerful pieces by professional poets and a writer of TV shows, essays and poetry (that's Jack Webb, the editor). 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.

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.

Jack Webb founded the Border Voices Poetry Project in 1993, during coffee breaks (or so he claims) at The San Diego Union-Tribune, where he worked as an assistant news editor. The project sends poets into classrooms throughout San Diego County; puts students on TV with major poets from around the world, and publishes anthologies of poems by students and internationally acclaimed writers. The project has received numerous awards for boosting student test scores as well as self-esteem. Jack, who received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from SDSU in 1995, also won top journalism awards as an investigative reporter for a series of stories on the Hell's Angels. Separate reports on California prison gangs – such as the so-called Mexican Mafia – generated a second round of awards and recognition. In 2008, Jack flew to Sacramento to join the governor's committee to select the poet laureate of California – one of many additional adventures before and since.