★ 08/14/2023

The creators’ high-stepping testament to the enduring cultural influence of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes (1901–1967) begins with the promise of a party: “a jam in Harlem to celebrate the word-making man.” Rhythmic lines from Newbery Honoree Reynolds, making his picture book debut, aptly describe Hughes as “the best word maker around./ Could make the word MOTHER feel/ like real warm arms wrapped around you.” In illustrations rendered with handmade stamps, Ezra Jack Keats Award Honorees the Pumphrey brothers apply stylized typography throughout, as on a page in which mother makes up the figure of a parent embracing a child. In the run-up to the party, pages hint at Hughes’s ability to turn words into laughter that “rang out/ for years and years.” And so, in 1991 at the NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “a fancy-foot,/ get-down,/ all-out bash” is held in the poet’s honor. There, the works of other Black writers peer out from book spines, and literary successors Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dance “like the best words do, together.” Melding celebratory text and kinetic, graphical art, the creators underscore the power of the subject’s poetry to move and to inspire. Figures are portrayed with brown skin throughout. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. Illustrators’ agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. (Oct.)

*Inspired by a photo of Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka boogeying down at a 1991 gathering at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center, this high-stepping shoutout to the honoree of that historic “hoopla in Harlem” pays tribute to the “king of letters,” celebrating the man “who wrote Maya and Amiri into the world” with his “wake-up stories / and rise-and-shine rhymes,” who answered would-be “word breakers” and book burners with courage and laughter. In illustrations as rhythmic and exuberant as Reynolds’ narrative, Langston and the other two luminaries may occupy center stage (their bodies ingeniously constructed from words and the brushed letters of their names), but the entire alphabetically arranged lineup of guests looking on from the bookshelves are familiar names—from Ashley Bryan to Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison to Octavia Butler, Countee Cullen to Nikki Giovanni to Gwendolyn Brooks. Evocative and celebratory words float around the dancers like strains of music, all the way to a culminating whirl of letters, laughter, and joy. Who knew these esteemed literary lions could cut the rug like that?

★ 07/01/2023

PreS-Gr 3—Reynolds and the Pumphreys sharpen all their tools for this one, throwing word art like clouds into the sky and regaling readers with scene after scene of the finest guests—Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, and so many more—who have come to Harlem's Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture for one reason: to celebrate the opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in February 1991. And this is some party. There is music. There is food. There is the feeling that everyone who is anyone is on board. Reynolds explains in an author's note that he was inspired to dig a little deeper by a black-and-white photograph of Baraka and Angelou doing the boogie at the event. He calls Hughes the king of letters, "whose ABC's became drums,/ bumping jumping thumping/ like a heart the size of the whole wide world" and the pictures bump jump thump along with the text. Joy like jazz falls off the page into readers' laps with every spread flashing back through time to Hughes's Ohio childhood, Harlem, America, the world, interiors, exteriors, the party, the people, the famous Black faces, and more. "And all the books on the shelves were listening and looking at all the people, shimmying, full of dazzle./ Don't nobody dance like a word maker./ And all the best word makers were there." This book is an absolute textual and pictorial glory of people, places, word-making, song-singing, storytelling, history-making moments, and images that are unforgettable. VERDICT A beguiling, bedazzling collaboration that will send children to the shelves to learn more about all the names within, especially Hughes.—Kimberly Olson Fakih

Acclaimed author Jason Reynolds nimbly narrates his celebration of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. Based on a picture of a real party in Hughes's honor at the Schomburg Center, this loving tribute is alive with rhythm. As Reynolds describes how Hughes excelled at making words dance to his tune, he makes his own words dance. He creates an irresistible feedback loop between the poet and the poetry that will have listeners tapping their toes to the beat. In spare but evocative language, Reynolds describes writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and countless others who were inspired by Hughes. The audio production mirrors the picture book's clever use of typeset words to create the pictures themselves. N.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 2023-07-13
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)