Sail Away

Gr 1–5—For this stunning volume, Bryan has selected and illustrated a collection of Hughes's sea-themed poems. Over his 46-year career, the famed poet chronicled his life traveling the world as a seaman. Bryan has created brightly colored cut-paper collage spreads to celebrate Hughes's mermaids, sailors, ocean waves, and experiences of living and working near the water. In "Moonlight Night: Carmel," the beautifully evocative text ("Tonight the waves march/In long ranks/Cutting the darkness/With their silver shanks") is perfectly matched by a glorious explosion of color and movement as sharp-edged waves meet the moon and sky. The final poem is "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Hughes's famous chronicle of the black experience through the ages, which pays tribute to all who have gone before and the legacy that they leave behind. Bryan matches this acknowledgement to legacy by including a photograph of his mother's scissors on the endpapers. He notes that she used them for sewing and embroidery but that he has used them for cutting the colored papers for all the collage compositions in the book.