That Is My Dream!
A picture book of Langston Hughes's "Dream Variation"
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
“Dream Variation,” one of Langston Hughes's most celebrated poems, about the dream of a world free of discrimination and racial prejudice, is now a picture book stunningly illustrated by Daniel Miyares, the acclaimed creator of Float.
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done….
Langston Hughes's inspiring and timeless message of pride, joy, and the dream of a better life is brilliantly and beautifully interpreted in Daniel Miyares's gorgeous artwork.
Follow one African-American boy through the course of his day as the harsh reality of segregation and racial prejudice comes into vivid focus. But the boy dreams of a different life—one full of freedom, hope, and wild possibility, where he can fling his arms wide in the face of the sun.
Hughes's powerful vision, brought joyously to life by Daniel Miyares, is as relevant—and necessary—today as when it was first written.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With luminous washes of watercolor and the lyrical language of Hughes's 1924 poem as his text, Miyares (That Neighbor Kid) presents a resonant vision of an African-American boy who imagines a more just world. Feeling rambunctious ("To fling my arms wide"), the boy boards a bus with his mother and sister to meet his father, a factory worker, for a picnic dinner. As the verse continues "In some place of the sun/ To whirl and to dance/ Till the white day is done" Miyares reveals that the boy lives in the segregated South. Unlike the white family who crosses his path, the boy and his family must sit in the back of the bus and drink from the "Colored Only" water fountain. But in the soft beauty of twilight ("Dark like me"), the boy dreams away these false barriers: Miyares shows black and white children together, magically soaring on giant birds, and (more pointedly) drinking from the same stream. As the stars come out, the reverie ends, but it's clear that the boy has gained a measure of hope and a reaffirmed sense of his identity. All ages.
