Three creators at the toe-tapping tip-toppest of their game deliver a soulful tribute to a beloved poet, essayist, and cultural leader in the melodic There Was a Party for Langston, written by Jason Reynolds (Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ghost), and illustrated by siblings Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey (The Old Truck).
The grand opening of the Schomburg Center's auditorium inspires a "jam in Harlem to celebrate the word-making man--Langston, the king of letters." Langston Hughes made words dance on the page and, on this February 1991 evening, literary luminaries boogie the night away in his honor. "All the best word makers were there" at the library's "fancy-foot, get-down, all-out bash." A who's-who of notable Black authors beam from book spines at the "shimmying, full of dazzle" crowd, but two guests take center stage: Hughes's "word-children," Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka, who "danced, like the best words do, together." Reynolds includes a joyous reflection on Hughes's childhood, and takes forays into his literary influence on both Angelou and Baraka, then returns readers to the thrilling tribute at hand: "that hoopla in Harlem... Where the books were listening, just like you."
The Pumphrey brothers use their signature stamping technique to create magnificent results. Sunny yellows and matte, muted browns and blues evoke a bygone era. A dizzying array of page designs that incorporate plenty of white space maximize both the landscape format of the open book, and the portrait format of each individual page. The artwork incorporates the musicality and playfulness of Reynolds's exuberant language while bolstering Hughes's impact with subtle design elements. For example, several of Hughes's notable jazz poems are rendered in calligrams, where their words take the form they express: "mother" folds into that shape, hugging her son; "I, too, am America" launches forth from a typewriter to form the United States. Langston is repeatedly coronated by the shadow of a "W," crowning "the word-making king," language and imagery that is echoed on the book's cover.
Former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Reynolds makes his picture book debut in this joyful and rhythmic triumph. The text is reverential yet jolly; "Langston's language-laughter tickle[s]" readers without ever losing focus on Hughes's profound literary impact. An author's note credits the story's inspiration to a pictured photograph of Angelou and Baraka (potentially a less familiar name to some readers, a poet with a "rickety radio heart") dancing.
This boisterous read-aloud is equal parts endearing homage and history lesson about a literary giant, and it is truly something to celebrate. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf
Shelf Talker: A notable creative team joins forces in a melodic picture book that pays joyous and rhythmic homage to a literary icon.