Maw Books

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I enjoy books that have excellent photography, which is why I was curious about My People by Langston Hughes with photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Hughes 1923 poem is a simple one:

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

He, of course, is talking about his fellow African Americans which served as a source of pride in both identity and their diverse culture in his work.

In the author’s note at the end of the book Charles R. Smith Jr. says:

To me, the words celebrate black people of differing shades and age, so I wanted to show skin color as bright as the sun and as dark  as the night; I wanted to show the newness of a newborn smile and the wisdom of wrinkled skin.  But, more than anything, I simply wanted to show that like any other group of people, black people come in all shapes,sizes, shades, and ages, and that each of us unique.

I was expecting to be blown away with the photographs but ultimately found them to just be okay.  That’s not to say that they weren’t beautiful because they were but I didn’t find myself gasping as I turned the page.  But I REALLY liked how the photographs were presented in the end flaps.  The treatment between the text and the photographs was well done and allows for a quiet contemplation of the text.

A fantastic photographic tribute which I’m glad to have in my home.

My People is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.
Links of interest:  Charles R. Smith website, more blogger reviews.<
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Ginee Seo Books.  January 6, 2009.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1416935401
Source:  Publisher for Cybils consideration where I served as a panelist.
My People is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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