Lullaby (For a Black Mother) by Langston Hughes

Lullaby (For a Black Mother) by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Sean Qualls

With a few simple words as smooth as a song, the poet Langston Hughes celebrates the love between a Black mother and her baby. The award-winning illustrator Sean Qualls’s painted and collaged artwork captures universally powerful maternal moments with tenderness and whimsy. In the end, readers will find a rare photo of baby Hughes and his mother, a biographical note, further reading, and the complete lullaby. Ages 0–4.

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Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe


Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe’s vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat’s own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn’t always have to be neat or clean — and definitely not inside the lines — to be beautiful. Ages 6–12.

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#art #culture #blackartist #energy #NYC #readers

#loveofreading #joyofreading #readinglife 

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