Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl Jones Found His Voice

Long before his deep voice made him famous as an actor, James Earl Jones was a boy with a stutter who dreaded speaking in class. To avoid the shame, he stopped talking almost entirely and stayed largely silent for about eight years. Then, in high school, a teacher's love of poetry caught his attention, and after a shipment of grapefruit inspired him to write a poem of his own, he found the courage to read it aloud to his classmates. Kari Lavelle, a speech pathologist, tells how poetry helped Jones find his voice, and Bryan Collier's collage and watercolor art follows his journey. Back matter includes information about stuttering. It was a 2025 Orbis Pictus honor book.