Arnold Adoff, born on July 16th, grew up in the East Bronx section of New York City where "books and food, recipes and political opinions, Jewish poetry and whether the dumplings would float on top of the soup" were equally important issues. "I read everything in the house," he says, "and then all I could carry home each week from the libraries I could reach on the Bronx buses."

For some years Arnold Adoff was a teacher and counselor in the public schools of Harlem and on the Upper West Side of New York. He was married to the children's author Virginia Hamilton. Adoff travels around the country giving workshops in schools, libraries, and colleges.

"By the time we reach adulthood, we are closed and set in our attitudes. The chances of a poet reaching us are very slim. But I can open a child's imagination, develop his appetite for poetry, and more importantly, show him that poetry is a natural part of everyday life. We all need someone to point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. That's the poet's job."

Arnold Adoff is a poet, biographer, and anthologist. In 1988 he was given the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. He also received an American Library Association Notable citation for Street Music and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults citation for Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues. Love Letters received a Blue Ribbon Award from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and is a Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction. Some of his more than thirty books are: Hard to be Six, Chocolate Dreams, Greens, and Black is Brown is Tan.

—Martha Valainis