Poetry For Young People: Langston Hughes

Edited by David Roessel and Arnold Ramperad (2006)

Illustrated by Benny Andrews

In this book, David Roessel and Arnold Ramperad have gathered a collection of poetry by famed African American author Langston Hughes. Roessel and Ramperad give the reader a short background on Hughes, and each piece of poetry present in the book. Painting by Benny Andrews add emotion to the poetry, and are a nice addition.

The poems in this book revolve around social injustice towards African Americans. Thus, it would be a great book to have around while you are talking about about civil rights. I do believe that the poetry would be better suited for older students (middle school and above). Hughes' poems are bursting with symbolism, and take some heavy interpretation in order to gather the full meaning from the text.