Notes From Your BooksellerJason Reynolds is a voice we listen to regardless of genre and age. In his picture book debut There Was a Party for Langston, with the help of the iconic art stylings of the Pumphrey Brothers (Jerome and Jarrett), we're called to celebrate the "King of Letters", Langston Hughes. This joyous acknowledgment of the literary genius and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes features Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka and more legends as they gather for the party of a lifetime. Jason Reynolds + The Pumphrey Brothers + Langston Hughes = A party not to be missed!
A Caldecott Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book
New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.
Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.
Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and more came be-bopping to recite poems at their hero’s feet at that heckuva party at the Schomberg Library, dancing boom da boom, stepping and stomping, all in praise and love for Langston, world-mending word man. Oh, yeah, there was hoopla in Harlem, for its Renaissance man. A party for Langston.