Author | James Baldwin |
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Illustrator | Yoran Cazac |
Language | English |
Publisher | The Dial Press |
Publication date | 1976 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 96 pages |
ISBN | 0-8037-4859-0 |
Little Man Little Man: A Story of Childhood is a 1976 children's novel written by James Baldwin and Yoran Cazac
TJ recounts what he experiences while playing ball outside.
"Little man, little man" is what Miss Lee calls WT after covering up his gash.
TJ plays ball with his friends outside; he grazes his knee, then hurts his buttocks. A police car drives by, looking for a man; they run away. TJ's father then invites WT over for cocoa. Later, TJ goes shopping for Miss Lee, under the aegis of WT. TJ is then summoned by Miss Beanpole; she wants him to go shopping for her; he goes with his three friends. They go to a store whose owner is Puerto Rican. On the way back, while playing ball again, WT hurts his foot and starts bleeding - a bottle fell down from a window and the shards hurt him. They go to Mr Man's and Miss Lee covers up his gash, starts crying, then gives him a Pepsi Cola. In the end, Blinky dances to Mr Man's record, to the delights of Miss Lee and Mr Man.
In addition to TJ, a four-year-old boy from Harlem, there are seven characters:[1]
Little Man Little Man: A Story of Childhood was reviewed as "experimental, enigmatic picture book that straddled the line between children’s and adult literature," and after its initial publication in 1976, it soon went out of print.[2] In 2018, Duke University Press published a new edition, with an afterword by Aisha Karefa-Smart, Baldwin's niece.[2]