num_pages: 112
description: George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and was raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the rest of his life seeking solutions to the poverty among landless black farmers by developing new uses for soil-replenishing crops such as peanuts, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes. Carver's achievements as a botanist and inventor were balanced by his gifts as a painter, musician, and teacher. This Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book by Marilyn Nelson provides a compelling and revealing portrait of Carver's complex, richly interior, profoundly devout life.
language: English
title: Carver: A Life in Poems
titlecomplete: Carver: A Life in Poems
characters: George Washington Carver
genres: Middle Grade, Historical, Biography, School, Poetry, American History, African American, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 1488
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Newbery Medal, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Coretta Scott King Book Award
category: Author Honor, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
category: Fiction and Poetry, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Young People's Literature
publisher: Front Street, Incorporated