Poetry for Young People

Hughes, L. (1994). Poetry for young people. New York, New York: Sterling Publishing Company.

This is a book of poems by Langston Hughes and illustrations by Benny Andrews. It is a beautiful book with poems ranging from a mother and son relationship all the way to a poem about a pretty girl named Sue. The poems are illustrated in a way that helps the student understand the content of the poem. They are fairly short poems and above the poem is a little hint about the meaning of it. There are extremely powerful poems about dreaming for change as well as a poem about Hughes attempting to understand his African heritage more. In my opinion, this is a must read book for anyone interested in literature.

I think it is of utmost importance to incorporate classic authors into curriculum. I think as English teachers, we would be doing a disservice to our students if we did not make them read authors that changed American literature and history. Hughes is one of these. The book is challenging yet attainable for 7th graders to read. I think it would be interesting to incorporate this classic author with a more modern voice and issue and see the similarities and the differences between the voices.