When eleven-year-old Langston's mother dies in 1946, he and his father move from Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville. Langston must leave behind everything he cherishes: family, friends, Grandma's Sunday suppers, even the magnolia trees Mama loved so much. The northern city is noisy and hectic, and their kitchenette apartment is just a lonely room with old newspapers covering up the holes. At school Langston is tormented for being too country. But his new home has something his old one did not: unlike the whites-only library back home, the George Cleveland Hall Library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston, a poet whose words are powerful In one of his poems lies a secret that will bring Langston closer to his mother's spirit.

From the dust jacket