Author Alice Walker tells the story of famous American poet Langston Hughes. Hughes had a difficult childhood. He dealt with a greedy, racist, and arrogant father who left their family, a grandfather who died fighting for freedom, and racial tensions that were ricocheting through America. He found an escape through reading and writing. Hughes was inspired by the strength he saw in the black people he knew, including his mother and those he met in Harlem. Hughes quit the University of Colombia and bounced from job to job, writing poems and stories along the way, until eventually, he was able to support himself with his writing. The book ends with a thoughtful note on Hughes's funeral and how he inspired those he touched to celebrate life in the midst of sadness because he "had shown them how good it was to love one another." ( )

This book is great to learn more about Langston Hughes. I read a lot of his poems in high school but never really new about him. In the book, he travels to Africa because he wanted to learn about his culture and where he is from. This book could be read first to kids, then you can read some of his famous poems. I loved how they put his poems in the book. This allowed me to really connect to what went on in the story. ( )

A young man is living with his mother in Indiana, but is soon moving to Mexico where his farther is. When arriving the mother soon decides to leave after she discovers there are earthquakes in Mexico and she is deathly afraid. Langston Hughes life is a struggle when they return home. His mother is not very wealthy and struggles to make ends meet. Langston Hughes discovers how difficult it is for "colored" people to get jobs in America. This is a big reason his farther wanted to live in Mexico because of the job opportunities that were offered to the colored people. This book was very inspirational. In the book it talks about how Langston Hughes escapes his reality by reading poetry and writing. Throughout the story it told us all about his life and how it all unfolded. In the end Langston Hughes wanted to make a difference so he wrote a quick poem he had came up with and slipped it to a famous poet at dinner. After Langston Hughes poetry was then published and he was able to express himself by doing what he loves the most. ( )

In this biography about Langston Hughes, Alice Walker of The Color Purple fame describes Langston's life from childhood through his gaining of success as a poet living in Harlem. Unfortunately there are no bibliography entries for this book, however in the author's note Alice Walker mentions having a personal relationship with Mr. Hughes. Although I feel she took some poetic license when adding in dialogue and things of that nature, I do feel that Ms. Walker tried very hard to stay true to her perceptions of Langston Hughes. As an educator, I also appreciated that Alice Walker included two poems by Langston Hughes. These help to give the reader extra insight into Langston Hughes that even Alice Walker could not fully convey. With this book, students would be able to get a very full picture of the life of one of America's greatest poets from the Harlem Renaissance. ( )

As someone who has read very little of Langston Hughes works, I was curious to know more about his life. This book goes into his childhood and his relationship with his father and his views on African American people. It also goes into Hughes' search for his place in the world. He travels to Africa because he wanted to be around Africans and learn more about his culture and where he is from. He was a champion for African Americans unlike his father who specifically did not like poor African Americans. I think the theme of the book is look beyond race, gender, class, etc. There are good people from every walks of life. How much money you have or the color skin does not define you or make you less than other people. This book could be used in an English class as an introduction to his poems. It could also be used for a history class to discuss the treatment of African Americans during that time as well as women and poor people. I think it would be an interesting topic of discussion to talk about Hughes' father's opinions on poor African Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and liked that it included two of his poems. ( )