There Was a Party for Langston

New York Timesbestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.

Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.

Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and more came be-bopping to recite poems at their hero’s feet at that heckuva party at the Schomberg Library, dancing boom da boom, stepping and stomping, all in praise and love for Langston, world-mending word man. Oh, yeah, there was hoopla in Harlem, for its Renaissance man. A party for Langston.

Jason Reynolds is a #1New York Timesbestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books includeAll American Boys(cowritten with Brendan Kiely);When I Was the Greatest;The Boy in the Black Suit;Stamped;As Brave as You;For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, andLu);Look Both Ways;Stuntboy, in the Meantime;Ain’t Burned All the Bright(recipient of the Caldecott Honor) andMy Name Is Jason. Mine Too.(both cowritten with Jason Griffin); andLong Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator, and writer, originally from Houston, Texas. His work includesIt’s a Sign!,Somewhere in the Bayou,The Old Boat, andThe Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year byPublishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor–all of which he created with his brother Jarrett. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’sThere Was a Party for Langston. Jerome works as a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He lives near Clearwater, Florida.

Jarrett Pumphrey is an award-winning author-illustrator who makes books for kids with his brother, Jerome. Their books includeIt’s a Sign!,Somewhere in the Bayou,The Old Boat, andThe Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year byPublishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’sThere Was a Party for Langston. Jarrett lives near Austin, Texas.

• Publisher:Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books (October 3, 2023)
• Language:English
• Hardcover:56 pages
• ISBN-10:1534439447
• ISBN-13:9781534439443
• Reading age:4 – 8 years
• Grade level:Preschool – 3
• Item Weight:1.74 pounds
• Dimensions:9.75 x 0.11 x 11.5 inches