01/20/12

Story by Diane Carroll

'Locomotion'

'Locomotion' event at JCCC features Kennedy Center production

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – A play that is based on the book Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson will be presented at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.

The play is a Kennedy Center national touring production. Woodson, the author, will not be attending, as previously reported.

The show, titled, Locomotion, A Teen’s Journey and the Power of Poetry, is open to the public. It is geared for children in third grade and up. Tickets, which are $5, are available through the college box office at 913-469-4445 or at jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Locomotion is the story of Lonnie Collins Motion, a fifth-grader who began living in a foster family after his parents died in a fire. He misses his little sister, Lili, who lives with a different foster family, and is trying to adjust to a new school.

Locomotion was a National Book Award finalist and a story told entirely in poems.

Woodson grew up in Greenville, S.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree in English, she became a drama therapist for homeless children and runaways in New York City until she decided to begin writing full-time.

Woodson is a Coretta Scott King Honor Book winner and many of her novels have been named American Library Association Notable Children's Books and American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. She likes to write about characters from a variety of races, backgrounds and classes, and introduce readers to the kinds of people they might not otherwise meet.

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