This slim volume contains Langston's Hughes's own selections for a children's volume of his poetry. This is a must have collection. The woodcuts are wonderful, and the selections accessible for children.

Great collection of quality poems from Langston Hughes. Hughes invokes all kinds of emotions through the journey a reader takes in this book as they read gentle children's poetry to powerful poetry on civil rights. ( )

Some of these poems I enjoyed a lot. However, for some reason I missed the fact that this was a collection of poems for children when I requested the book from the library, and so it wasn't quite what I was expecting. There were still some really deep, intense themes here, but in some of them it felt like Hughes had pulled his punches in order to connect with his audience more. I guess I was hoping for more of the poems to hit hard.

That said, I did enjoy most of these at least a little, and some of them a whole lot. The illustrations are also a nice addition. My favorites tended to be on the longer side (compared to the rest of the poems in this volume) but the imagery in even the short poems was stellar. ( )

Collection of Langston Hughes Poetry. Good at introducing simpler poetry, and the African American experience.

This groundbreaking book of poems gives voice to African American dreamers, activists and lost souls. African Americans found a hero in Langston Hughes as they discovered the poetic realism he offered. Hughes’ poems run the gamut of emotions, hope, pain, loss and celebration. The scratchboard illustrations by Brian Pinkney are beautiful and add to the lyrical quality of the poems.