Langston Hughes: American Poet

Walker, Alice

ISBN 10: 0060215194 ISBN 13: 9780060215194

Publisher: Amistad, 2001

Synopsis

When Langston Hughes was a boy, His grandmother told him true stories of how African people were captured in Africa and brought to America enslaved. She told him about their fight for freedom and justice.

Langston loved his grandmother's stories. To learn more stories and bear more beautiful language, he began to read books. He fell in love with books and decided that one day he would write stories too, true stories about Black people.

When he was only fourteen, Langston wrote his first poem, and for the rest of his life he was always writing -- stories and essays and, most of all, poems. He wrote about Black people as he saw them: happy, sad, mad, and beautiful. Through his writing he fought for freedom from inequality and injustice; and his gift of words inspired and influenced many other writers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker was one writer Langston influenced. In this moving and richly detailed portrait she celebrates the life of an extraordinary man. Accompanied by stunning paintings by artist Catherine Deeter, Langston Hughes: American Poet will introduce a whole new generation to the life and works of a great African American Poet of the twentieth century, and one of the most important poets of all time.

About this title

About the Author:

Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple. She has written numerous poems, essays, and short stories, including her most recent book, The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart. Originally published in 1974, Langston Hughes: American Poet was Alice Walker's first book for children. This picture book biography is now back in print with a new author's note and beautiful new illustrations. Ms. Walker lives in Northern California.

This is Catherine Deeter's third collaboration with Alice Walker. Their first two books for children were Finding the Green Stone and To Hell With Dying. Ms. Deeter has also illustrated The Return of Rex and Ethel by Arnold Adoff, Poppy Bear: The Garden Rat Overslept by Ruth E. Saltzman, and her own Seymour Bleu. She lives in Templeton, California.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-5-This text originally published in 1974 is accompanied by new, colorful paintings. In clear but at times dry prose, the author reveals the many influences that led Hughes to become who he was. He was raised by a loving grandmother and by a mother who had difficulty finding jobs. He dealt with loneliness, racism, and a distant father who, he realized, hated his own people-black Americans-as well as Native Americans. The artwork is rendered in lovely, inviting hues and softens the misery the narrative describes. For example, a depiction of young Langston meeting his estranged, bitter father shows the elder Hughes in a much warmer light than the wording might indicate. The new edition is larger in format than the older one and has a more modern picture-book feel, as well as an author's note. Two of Hughes's poems are included: "When Susanna Jones Wears Red" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Walker's version balances Floyd Cooper's Coming Home (Philomel, 1994) by delving more into Hughes's adult life. An acceptable choice for poetry units and Black History Month.
Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Amistad
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060215194
• ISBN 13: 9780060215194
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Deeter Catherine