There Was a Party for Langston

Why am I even surprised? Jason Reynolds has done it again. And this picture book was absolutely amazing. It is a love letter to Langston Hughes, but also an appreciation to words, to the library, and to some of the greatest writers of our time. I think that what worked so well about this picture boo......more

In 1991 the New York Times photographer Chester Higgins Jr. went to a party. A bash. A celebration. The kind of party they’d talk about for decades to come. The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was celebrating the opening of their brand new Langston Hughes Aud......more

I would give the illustrations a 5. Pumpherys are on point. But I feel the skeleton of this story is not intact. Most children I know will not walk into this with a working knowledge of Hughes, Angelou and Baraka. It feels self-indulgent and doesn’t feel authentic for small children. As a work of ar......more

The more I sit with this book, the more brilliant it becomes in my mind. At first, I didn’t know how to react to it. While I adore it as an adult, I didn’t know if this was one of those books that appeals to adults more than kids simply due to the overwhelming number of allusions in the story. That......more