Langston Hughes' s tender poem about mothers and babies is now a gorgeously illustrated picture book. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.īook Description Hardcover. The physical intimacy of mother and child “cuddleclose” is timeless. The full poem is printed at the back, along with a 1902 photo of an infant Hughes in his mother’s arms and a biographical note about the poet. One particularly stirring spread shows a close-up of the mother bouncing her baby above the crib with the world outside the window (“A necklace of stars / winding the night”). At the heart of the words and pictures is the parent-baby bond, but, asthe moving afterword points out, there are longing and loneliness, too, echoed in the silhouetted profiles of mother and child “kissing the night” from opposite ends of the double-page spread. Beautiful story, beautiful language, and beautiful poem.Hughes’ classic lullaby gets a loving lift with Qualls graceful artwork in this picture book that shows a beautiful baby in its loving mother’s embrace, dancing in the night sky among the stars, floating on a chair in the clouds over the Harlem city lights, and celebrating the dark. Children will be able to easily read this story with its simplistic style and wording. Rating: I’m a sucker for poems, so when you incorporate the aspect of love then I can’t help but give it a 5/5. My favorite is probably the picture where the mother is holding the baby in the air, arms stretched out for the stars.

Working with red, yellow, navy, blue and a number of other colors they create a beautiful picture of the bond the mother and baby have. A mother’s love is something no one can replicate.Īrtistic/Literary: The illustrator uses watercolor for the pictures. Also, mother recognizes that her baby is beautiful and wishes to profess her love in any way she can. She wants to make sure from an early age the baby knows she/he is beautiful how they are.

Mother describes her baby as a “beautiful black baby”, and “dark baby”. How she would make a necklace of stars for her baby if she could. The mother wonders what she should sing about so she starts singing about the night.

Review: Here we read a poem about a mother singing a lullaby to her baby.

Lullaby for a black mother