Now that the year is coming to a close, many of us start to think about the year that has been and the year that is in the offing. Will the coming year be 'better' than the last one was? Today I offer you a poetry book that is all about hoping for what could be. Imagine what our world would be like if people could set aside their differences. Imagine the lives our children could lead.
That is my dream
That is my dream
Langston Hughes
Illustrated by Daniel Miyares
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Random House, 2017, 978-0-399-55017-1
One day a little African American boy sets off for town
on a bus with his mother and sister. They have to sit in the back of the bus,
because this is how it is in the segregated world that he lives in. In town he
watches as a white boy drinks from the “whites only” water fountain. He has to
drinks from the fountain that is labeled “colored only.” Then, as the day fades,
they greet the father of the family whose work day has come to an end. The
family have a picnic “Beneath a tall tree” as the “night comes on gently.”
As he watches
the dark seep across the sky, the little boy dares to dream of the world he
wished he lived in, a world where he and the little white boy he saw in town
could play together and ride on the backs of birds. Together, the little white
boy and his sister, and the little black boy and his sister, would celebrate as
the night appears, “coming tenderly.”
This is a
powerful interpretation of the poem Dream
Variation by Langston Hughes. The illustrator beautifully combines a gorgeously
illustrated pictorial narrative with the poet’s words, to give young readers a picture
book that is timeless. The book celebrates what could be, and dares to hope of
a time when all children can play in a world free of divisions.
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