my people

Thirty-three words. That is the sum total of the poem ""My People" by Langston Hughes. Now illustrator Charles Smith provides a photographic exploration of those words with stunning pictures of young, old, male, female, smiling, gazing. The photos, sepia toned and stark, celebrate the people for whom Langston penned these spare words. Instead of introducing the works of this master poet to kids on the flat page of a textbook why not offer this book and THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS so that they may enter more fully into the reading experience?