Finding Langston [Hardcover]

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

AKirkus ReviewsBest Book of the Year, with 5 Starred Reviews, and aSchool Library JournalBest Book of 2018

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 bookBefore 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.

Winner of the 2019 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
A Junior Library Guild selection!★ An engaging, quick, and relatable read that skillfully incorporates themes of race, class, post-war American life in the North and South, and a bit of Langston Hughes' poetry. This is a story that will stay with readers long after they've finished it. —School Library Journal, Starred Review

★  The impact on the reader could not be more powerful. A memorable debut novel. —Booklist, Starred Review