Tunes and travels

Anyone curious about jazz or Marco Polo's adventures would be rewarded by a trip to the children's book section. Two lushly illustrated, meticulously researched, and beautifully written books on the subjects recently won awards from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

"Jazz," by Walter Dean Myers, tells its story with poems mimicking the rhythms of the uniquely American musical style. A timeline traces the evolution of jazz in the United States, and a glossary defines 25 terms.

"The Adventures of Marco Polo," by Russell Freedman, displays a similar level of respect for the intellect of young readers. In retelling the tale of a 6,500-mile journey said to have lasted 24 years, it forthrightly discusses the question of whether Polo was the world's greatest explorer or its biggest liar. The book features stunning archival art dating back thousands of years.

Few Canadian writers are as popular in the United States as Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. How well David Adams Richards knows that.

For 30 years, Richards has been writing novels set in northern New Brunswick with a sense of place that some critics say is as indelible as that in the works of William Faulkner and Thomas Hardy. His latest book, "The Friends of Meager Fortune," is set in the mid-20th century .

Earlier this month that novel beat Claire Messud's "The Emperor's Children," Munro's "The View From Castle Rock," and four other novels to win the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Caribbean and Canada.

Richards will be honored at a reception, co-hosted by the Canadian Consulate of Boston and the Canadian Women's Club of Boston, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the consulate, 3 Copley Place.

Some writers are not widely known in their hometowns, never mind in the countries next door. That was the impetus for an award recognizing the late Robert Creeley, a poet who published about 60 books and grew up in Acton. As Bob Clawson, a member of the award committee, tells the story, the Acton library did not own a book by the poet when Creeley visited in the 1990s.

Now the Acton Memorial Library gives the Robert Creeley Award annually to a distinguished poet who is invited to select $500 worth of books for the library. This year's winner, Yusef Komunyakaa , a Pulitzer Prize winner, will read from his works at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Parker Damon Building, 11 Charter Road, Acton.

"How Doctors Think," by Jerome Groopman (Houghton Mifflin)

"Dog Years: A Memoir," by Mark Doty (HarperCollins)

"Whitethorn Woods," by Maeve Binchy (Knopf)

John Netzer of Concord Bookshop recommends "Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties," by Robert Stone (Ecco). It is "as much about his pals [Ken] Kesey and [Neal] Cassady and that colorful period as about himself," writes Netzer. "But it is also about a young novelist getting started, told in Stone's wonderful voice."

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.