Live online Q&A with poet Kwame Alexander

Our World Book Day event for Key Stage 2 children with American poet, writer and educator Kwame Alexander was simply brilliant. Kwame and our CBS host, Liz had a fascinating conversation where the subject matter ranged from Kwame's favourite childhood books, to the secret of Kwame's success to basketball and why reading is so important.

Here are a few exchanges to give you a flavour of the conversation:

Did your parents introduce you to reading?
Kwame: My mother read to me a lot of really cool books. She gave us books like Dr. Seuss. My father was like a bookish professor type and he made us read the dictionary. That was the worst. No ten-year-old wants to read the dictionary. But that’s what my dad made me read!

So I was a well-read kid because I had parents who were extremely bookish. My mom made books fun. My dad made books functional.

When I got to school I had teachers who gave me books that I didn’t want to read. They said, “Kwame is a reluctant reader.” But I loved reading. I just didn’t love the books I was being assigned.

That’s why I believe books are like amusement parks. And if books are amusement parks, sometimes we’ve got to let the students choose the rides.

Why poetry?
Kwame: I like how poetry lets you talk about really heavy things in just a few words.

I like the rhythm.

I like how you can make someone feel something immediately with just three lines.

And I love the white space on the page.

It’s not intimidating. You can get from the beginning of a poem to the end of a poem quickly and build confidence.

If you'd like to watch the whole event you can do so here: