26213: Corbett: (review) Popo and Fifina by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bob Corbett

Folks, I may have sent this note already last week, but I simply can't 
recall if it I did or didn't.  The woes of getting a bit older.  But not 
only  that.  The primary reason I started writing books reviews and notes 
(years ago) was to write TO MYSELF.  I would read a book, even take notes 
on it, and then forget if I'd ever read it, or forget the main line of 
argument or plot.  I started writing about my reading for me; to remind 
me.

So, if I've already sent this note, I'm sorry.

A month or so ago a list member wrote to ask if I either had a copy of 
Hughes and Bontemps' book Popo and Fifina for sale, or could I get one 
for her.  I had a re-print in my library, but none for sale.  I tracked 
down a copy for her (and a couple extras now), and delighted in that I 
found a 1932 first edition for myself, a rather expensive present!

I realized that while I've had the book in my library for ages I never 
read it.  So, I sat down and did and was just delighted.  It is an 
important book, beautifully written and a model of how to write for 
children about Haiti.

I had always assumed it was a book of stories, but it is a novel for
U.S. kids about Haiti, and I think a model of what that genre should be 
like.

See my more detailed notes at the url below.

Bob Corbett



http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/personal/reading/hughes-popo.html