A lyrical biography of Kahlil Gibran by award-winning writer Cory
McCarthy, with glorious illustrations by Caldecott Honoree and two-time
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner Ekua Holmes.
Before Kahlil Gibran became the world's third-best-selling poet of all
time, he was Gibran Khalil Gibran, an immigrant child from Lebanon with
a secret hope to bring people together despite their many differences.
Kahlil's life highlights the turn of the twentieth century, from the
religious conflicts that tore apart his homeland and sent a hundred
thousand Arab people to America, to settling in Boston, where the
wealthy clashed headlong with the poor. Throughout it all, Kahlil held
on to his secret hope, even as his identity grew roots on both sides of
the Atlantic. How could he be both Kahlil Gibran, Arab American, and
Gibran Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese boy who longed for the mountains of
his homeland? Kahlil found the answer in art and poetry. He wrote The
Prophet, an arrow of hope as strong as the great cedars of Lebanon and
feathered by the spirit of American independence. More than a hundred
years later, his words still fly around the world in many languages,
bringing people together.