This Coretta Scott King Award-winning photography book based on Langston Hughes’s classic poem is perfect for kids and moving and powerful for readers of all ages. Langston Hughes’​s spare yet eloquent tribute to his people has been cherished for generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. interprets this beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today. Starred Review. K Up—Smith's knack for pairing poetry and photography is well documented in books such as Hoop Queens (Candlewick, 2003) and Rudyard Kipling's If (S & S, 2006). Here, his artful images engage in a lyrical and lively dance with Langston Hughes's brief ode to black beauty. Dramatic sepia portraits of African Americans—ranging from a cherubic, chubby-cheeked toddler to a graying elder whose face is etched with lines-are bathed in shadows, which melt into black backgrounds. The 33 words are printed in an elegant font in varying sizes as emphasis dictates. In order to maximize the effect of the page turn and allow time for meaning to be absorbed, the short phrases and their respective visual narratives often spill over more than a spread. The conclusion offers a montage of faces created with varying exposures, a decision that provides a light-filled aura and the irregularities that suggest historical prints. A note from Smith describes his approach to the 1923 poem. This celebration of the particular and universal will draw a wide audience: storytime participants; students of poetry, photography, and cultural studies; seniors; families. A timely and timeless offering.— Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Some 86 years after its original publication, Langston Hughes’ poem “My People” finds celebratory interpretation in Charles R. Smith Jr.’s elegant sepia photography. Echoing the graceful simplicity of Hughes’ verses, Smith’s pictures capture African American faces of every size, shape, age, and hue, their countenances shining out from fields of glossy black. The expressions are as varied and captivating as the subjects, from crying babies to radiant children and adults. The pages outnumber the words, 40 to 33, allowing the text, printed in gold, to sweep across the darkness with the titular refrain. In an endnote, Smith shares the questions he asked himself as he began his photographic interpretation, noting Hughes’ intent “to celebrate the pride he had for his black brothers and sisters.” In the aspects that he has captured, and their artful arrangement across the page, he does just that. Preschool-Grade 3. --Thom Barthelmess Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was born in Joplin, Missouri, and lived much of his life in Harlem, New York. As one America’s most cherished chroniclers of the black experience, known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes’s work was constantly groundbreaking throughout his forty-six-year career. His poetry about the ocean and the symbolism that surrounds it stems from his travels through Africa and Europe working as a seaman. Charles R. Smith Jr. is an acclaimed poet and the Coretta Scott King Award–winning illustrator of My People , a picture book based on the poem by Langston Hughes. He is also the illustrator of If , the author and photographer of I Am the World , and he won the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for his book Twelve Rounds To Glory . He grew up in California and attended the Brooks Institute of Photography. A magazine and book cover photographer in addition to a picture book creator, Charles lives with his wife and kids in Poughkeepsie, New York. Visit him at CharlesRSmithJr.com.