Finding Langston

【在幽美詩句中找回自我】

1946年，11歲的Langston在母親去世後，跟著父親從南方的阿拉巴馬州搬到了北方的芝加哥，成為了一部份在大遷徙期間湧入北方的非裔美國人。生活從農村社區換到有著複雜管線的水泥大樓的他非常想念母親，並渴望回到阿拉巴馬州的故鄉，那裡的人們生活步調緩慢，也不那麼粗魯，而在新學校裡，他遭到同學的欺凌，被嘲笑是鄉下來的土包子，一切的一切使他漸漸迷失自我，直到他走進了鎮上的圖書館。在這裡，他能盡情地閱讀，能獨處能放鬆，他特別喜歡與自己有著相同名字，際遇十分類似的詩人Langston Hughes的著作，在這些優美的詩句中，他也漸漸找到了生活的慰藉。

除了豐富的史實細節外，此書還涉及欺凌與逝去等沉重的話題，作者Lesa Cline-Ransome用平淡的口吻，講述著一個有著悠久歷史、堅強與溫柔並濟的故事。

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 book Before 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.