In the late 1940s, 11-year-old Langston recently moved to Chicago from Alabama with his father and is having a hard time with the transition. He and his dad are both still grieving the death of Langston’s mother, while Langston is teased at school for being a country boy. On a day he’s evading a bully after school, Langston discovers the George Cleveland Hall branch of the Chicago Public Library. Back in Alabama, his mother had told him that libraries were for white people, but here he sees people that look like him going in. Langston enters and finds a welcoming world. He’s drawn first to the work of a Black poet who has the same name as he does: Langston. Reading Langston Hughes’s poems makes Langston feel like he’s found someone who understands his life, whose words could be his own. Talking more to his dad and reading old letters, Langston realizes that his mom, too, found resonance and hope in the words of Langston Hughes, and that she chose to name him “Langston” because of Langston Hughes. A short, stirring novel that sees Langston making new connections in myriad ways also sees him move from loneliness and isolation to hope. (Ages 8–11)

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

When eleven-year-old Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville district, it feels like he's giving up everything he loves.

It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends. He misses everything-- Grandma's Sunday suppers, the red dirt roads, and the magnolia trees his mother loved.

In the city, they live in a small apartment surrounded by noise and chaos. It doesn't feel like a new start, or a better life. At home he's lonely, his father always busy at work; at school he's bullied for being a country boy.

But Langston's new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the Chicago Public Library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston--a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him.

Lesa Cline-Ransome, author of the Coretta Scott King Honor picture book Before She Was Harriet, has crafted a lyrical debut novel about one boy's experiences during the Great Migration. Includes an author's note about the historical context and her research.

Don't miss the companion novel, Leaving Lymon, which centers on one of Langston's classmates and explores grief, resilience, and the circumstances that can drive a boy to become a bully-- and offer a chance at redemption.

A Junior Library Guild selection!
A CLA Notable Children's Book in Language Arts
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, with 5 Starred Reviews
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2018