Amazing Peace A Christmas Poem

"ANGELS AND Mortals, Believers and Nonbelievers, look heavenward," Maya Angelou writes, "and speak the word aloud. Peace." Angelou's moving poem is a radiant affirmation of the goodness of humanity. First read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony, it comes alive again as a fully illustrated children's book, celebrating the promise of peace in the holiday season. In this simple story, a family joins with their community-rich and poor, black and white, Muslim and Jew-to celebrate the holidays.

Maya Angelou, poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director, was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?; and the celebrated poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton.