Sail Away

by Langston Hughes, Ashley Bryan (Illustrator)

Overview

A celebration of mermaids, wildernesses of waves, and the creatures of the deep through poems by Langston Hughes and cut-paper collage illustrations by multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Ashley Bryan.

The great African American poet Langston Hughes penned poem after poem about the majesty of the sea, and the great African American artist Ashley Bryan, who’s spent more than half his life on a small island, is as drawn to the sea as much as he draws the sea.

Their talents combine in this windswept collection of illustrated poems—from “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” to “Seascape,” from “Sea Calm” to “Sea Charm”—that celebrates all things oceanic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481430852
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was born in Joplin, Missouri, and lived much of his life in Harlem, New York. As one America’s most cherished chroniclers of the black experience, known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes’s work was constantly groundbreaking throughout his forty-six-year career. His poetry about the ocean and the symbolism that surrounds it stems from his travels through Africa and Europe working as a seaman.

Ashley Bryan (1923–2022) grew up to the sound of his mother singing from morning to night, and he shared the joy of song with children. A beloved illustrator, he was named a Newbery Honoree for his picture book, Freedom Over Me. He also received the Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, was a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer, a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and the recipient of countless other awards and recognitions. His books include Freedom Over Me; Sail Away; Beautiful Blackbird; Beat the Story-Drum, Pum Pum; Let It Shine; Ashley Bryan’s Book of Puppets; and What a Wonderful World. He lived in Islesford, one of the Cranberry Isles off the coast of Maine.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/05/2015
Hughes may be best known for his work tied to questions of racial and national identity, yet these 15 collected poems—about the movement of water, the sea, and its travelers—show a more playful side of the poet. The first entry, "Catch," is about the courtship between a human and a mermaid ("Being a fisher boy,/ He'd found a fish/ To carry—/ Half fish,/ Half girl/ To marry"), while "Moonlight Night: Carmel" describes the sea after dark: "Tonight the waves march/ In long ranks/ cutting the darkness/ With their silver shanks." Each poem enjoys a spread of its own, and Bryan's kaleidoscopic cut-paper collages feature rolling, roiling waves whose shapes are echoed in drifts of clouds, beams of sunlight, and flowing tendrils of hair belonging to a cast of sailors, explorers, fishermen, and children. Bryan adds a personal homage to his mother, a note explains, by including images of her embroidery scissors on the endpapers (he used the same scissors to create his cutouts for the book). A vibrant pairing of poetry and art. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

*"Readers don't have to have ever heard Bryan's unforgettable, theatrical recitation of "My People" or other Hughes poems to understand the depth of the artist's appreciation of and admiration for Hughes and his poetry: he opens the poems up visually here in the same way that he opens them auditorily when he performs them live. Like Hughes, Bryan, at 91, can also boast, 'I'm still pulling.'" -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

From the Publisher

★ 11/01/2015
Gr 1–5—For this stunning volume, Bryan has selected and illustrated a collection of Hughes's sea-themed poems. Over his 46-year career, the famed poet chronicled his life traveling the world as a seaman. Bryan has created brightly colored cut-paper collage spreads to celebrate Hughes's mermaids, sailors, ocean waves, and experiences of living and working near the water. In "Moonlight Night: Carmel," the beautifully evocative text ("Tonight the waves march/In long ranks/Cutting the darkness/With their silver shanks") is perfectly matched by a glorious explosion of color and movement as sharp-edged waves meet the moon and sky. The final poem is "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Hughes's famous chronicle of the black experience through the ages, which pays tribute to all who have gone before and the legacy that they leave behind. Bryan matches this acknowledgement to legacy by including a photograph of his mother's scissors on the endpapers. He notes that she used them for sewing and embroidery but that he has used them for cutting the colored papers for all the collage compositions in the book. VERDICT An impressive picture book of poetry to be read, reread, and cherished for generations to come.—Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2015-06-29
Hughes' pen is paired to Bryan's sculpting scissors, making a rich, poetic picture book indeed. "Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling." Thus ends Langston Hughes' autobiography, The Big Sea (1945), and here begins the subject of Bryan's compilation. He chooses both familiar poems, such as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and less-well-known ones, such as "Sailor," to explore all things aquatic, both domestic and international. Reflecting Hughes' adventures seeing the world via its waterways, the poems feature mermaids, waves, bridges, meeting merchants from all over, and more. Bryan's intricate and colorful cut-paper collage illustrations breathe new life into the poems. The artist also pays homage to his mother, including photographs of her sewing and embroidering scissors on the endpapers—the same scissors he used to cut the images for these illustrations. Readers don't have to have ever heard Bryan's unforgettable, theatrical recitation of "My People" or other Hughes poems to understand the depth of the artist's appreciation of and admiration for Hughes and his poetry: he opens the poems up visually here in the same way that he opens them auditorily when he performs them live. Like Hughes, Bryan, at 91, can also boast, "I'm still pulling." (Picture book/poetry. 5-12)

Kirkus Reviews