There Was a Party for Langston

There Was a Party for Langston: King of Letters (2023) is a picture book written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jerome and Jarret Pumphrey. Reynolds is an influential fiction author who mainly writes for children and young adults. His work often discusses themes related to being a Black American in the 21st century. Some of his books, like When I Was the Greatest (2014) and Ghost (2016), use standard fiction formats to portray realistic experiences of Black youth in America. He also often experiments with genre and format. For instance, Ain’t Burned All the Bright (2022) combines prose poetry and visual art, Long Way Down (2017) is in poetic free verse, and Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017) contributes to the official canon of Marvel’s Spider-Man.

There Was a Party for Langston is Reynolds’s first foray into children’s picture books. To accomplish this, he teamed up with celebrated artists and brothers Jerome and Jarret Pumphrey, who write and illustrate their children’s books and co-illustrate picture books for other authors.