Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

We’re having family pictures taken tomorrow, and after figuring out what to wear (something I LOATHE) and doing my best to juggle the things that sort of conflict, tonight I gave my hubby a haircut. One more thing off the list, right? There’s still plenty of laundry and Christmas prep there, of course, but I’m working on it!

My last task for tonight is to review Finding Langston, which has been sitting on my shelf for probably two years. (You know those books that are so short that you’re sure you’ll just zip right through it any day now?) I finally realized that it could work as a read-aloud with my 11-year-old, and we ended up both quite enjoying it. Lesa Cline-Ransome’s Langston is eleven and newly moved to Chicago with his father after his mother’s death. The city is noisy, crowded, and lonely for a country boy from Alabama, and the school bully only makes it worse. On the day he realizes that the George Cleveland Hall Library is open to all Chicago residents, however, his life slowly begins to change. Langston Hughes’ poetry “puts all the things he feels inside on the outside,” and ultimately helps him understand both of his parents better. Eleven-year-old Langston’s afternoons at the library also help change the dynamic at school, and slowly, his life begins to shift for the better.

This is a brief, poignant look at both personal and historical pain and what eases it. My girlie gravitates toward the emotionally rich–complex, even–and so I’m not saying that the average kid would necessarily fall in love with it; I’m also not saying that he or she wouldn’t. What I can say is that if you’re looking for an accessible novel about the Great Migration for middle graders, you can’t do much better than this one.