"In a debut historical novel about the Great Migration a boy discovers Chicago's postwar South Side and the poetry of Langston Hughes.
When 11-year-old Langston's mother dies in 1946, he and his father leave rural Alabama for Chicago's brown belt as a part of what came to be known as the Great Migration. It's lonely in the small apartment with just the two of them, and at school Langston is bullied. But his new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the local public library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston, a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him."
Awards and Nominations:
- Coretta Scott King Book Award Nominee for Author (2019)
As a middle school teacher, I often observe what students are reading and even take suggestions from them. After a visit to the library, students were introduced to the Charlie May Simon nominees for this school year. Soon thereafter, many students were wielding books from the list. I quickly looked on Scholastic to find as many from the list to get them in my library, but I came up short. Only two of the nominated books were on Scholastic and at a reasonable price. I quickly ordered Finding Langston and The Season of Styx Malone. After a long and tiresome week at school, I decided I would cozy up with a short book that I could quickly and easily devour. That book just so happened to be Finding Langston.
Finding Langston is told by a young African American boy who leaves his home state of Alabama to move with his father to Chicago. Langston doesn't like being the new kid because he doesn't fit in. He doesn't like his new house. And he definitely misses everything about his mom and Alabama. Langston tries to cope with the loss of his mother, being the new kid and having the desire to read books even though his father doesn't want him to.
I sat down and devoured this book in just a few hours. Consuming it that quickly may have an impact on my overall review, but I also waited over three weeks before giving this a final and full review. I loved that Lesa incorporated Langston Hughes into this story and even had the main character named after him thanks to his mother. I think she missed the mark by not incorporating more of Langston Hughes' poetry in this book. It would have been a wonderfully beautiful way to really pull history into this book. As I mentioned earlier, the main character Langston was named by his mother. I truly loved that he was able to learn a little more about his mother from finding books at the library and learning about Langston Hughes. Langston was able to read a letter his father had and put pieces together to determine that his mother could read and enjoyed poetry by Langston Hughes.
I felt like there were a lot of small starts to big plot points in this story, but they didn't fully develop. The entire time I kept waiting for Langston's dad and their neighbor to get together and start dating. I kept waiting for his dad to find happiness with her, but that never really and truly happened. I also felt like there was too much going on with the bullies at school and it didn't really fit into the overall theme and plot of Langston finding himself and being happy where he was. It felt like the entire bully situation was added in just to possibly connect with kids today. This book does take place in the past and I think that can and would be a deterrent or problem for some kids reading this. The entire time that I read this I thought the book was taking place in the 60s or 70s and it was actually taking place in the 40s. I wish there would have been more historical background on this time and why Langston and his dad moving to Chicago was such a big deal. I think that having the historical significance and really incorporating life in Chicago in the mid-40s would have fit better in the overall theme and plot than the bullies at school.
Overall, I don't think this book is a knock it out of the park award winner. I felt like there was SOOOO much potential for this book and nothing ever really came to fruition. There were a ton of historical things that could have easily been brought in and would have made this book a wonderful teaching tool to use in a classroom. I give this three stars. The story lacks a true plot and it honestly just plugs along until you reach the end with little to no excitement.
No comments:
Post a Comment