Primary Education
This books talks about a man named Langston who became a word maker and made people feel different things with his words he made.
This book is great for teaching students about how different words can all makeyou feel different things, but it can also help you to express different things. ( )

Reynolds and the Pumphrey brothers take readers on a dazzling journey through Langston Hughes’ legacy.

“There was a party for Langston at the library. / A jam in Harlem to celebrate the word-making man— // Langston, the king of letters.” And what a party! When Langston writes, words move, they collide, they big bang into the very atoms of connection. On shelves in the background, fellow Black writers and poets peer out from the spines of their books, looking on in delight as Langston’s “word-children” Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka whirl with joy and inspiration, their own word-making mastery a credit to Langston’s legacy. Inspired by a joyous photo of Angelou and Baraka snapped in 1991 at the opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Reynolds sets a syncopated pace with his debut picture book, delivering not only a celebratory dance of a biography, but a primer in Hughes’ own jazz poetry. Not missing a beat and laying down one all their own, the Pumphrey brothers’ illustrations incorporate verses from Hughes’ poems and other words he set into motion to create a thrumming visual landscape where meaning takes literal flight. This book demonstrates that Hughes’ work is the epitome of what words can be. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A bar set stratospherically high and cleared with room to spare. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

-Kirkus Review

This book is appropriate for primary readers.
This book is about Langston Hughes and a party that was held to honor his writing talent as well as the famous writers who attended the party.
This book would be useful in teaching about the power of language and words.

K-Gr 2—This brilliant story shares the positive impact Langston Hughes had on so many—big and small—through
music, dance, and, of course, words. The Pumphreys strike again as they expertly weave text through their
illustrations like streams of poetry in this incredibly eye-catching picture book.

First sentence: There was a party for Langston at the library. A jam in Harlem to celebrate the word-making man--Langston, the king of letters whose ABC's became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole wide world.

Premise/plot: This party for Langston Hughes was held in February 1991. The author, Jason Reynolds, was inspired to write about this party after seeing a photograph of two authors dancing--Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka. The book celebrates Langston Hughes AND his continuing legacy. There are word-makers and word-breakers. Word-breakers being those who would ban books and limit freedom.

My thoughts: This picture book earned a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor.

I loved the text of this one--very rhythmic. Definitely fitting, I think, to celebrating a poet.

I loved the illustrations--very vibrant, joyful, jumping off the page. ( )