Newt Newt, newt What can you be? Just A salamander, child. That's me! In 26 never-before-published short and wonderfully clever poems, Langston Hughes takes children through both the alphabet and the animal world. From Ape to Zebra—with bees, camels, fish, and even a unicorn in between—he paints a picture of each animal with just a few simple, but telling, words. Hughes also knows what makes children What use Is a goose Except to quackle? If a goose Can't quackle She's out of whackle. The publication of a new manuscript by Langston Hughes is an important event in American literature. But when you add the fanciful three-dimensional animals built especially for this book by first and second graders from the Harlem School of the Arts, an introduction for children by entertainer and humanitarian Ben Vereen, and an afterword for older children and adults that delves into the work Hughes did for and with children, you have an instant classic. Oxford is proud to bring this new Hughes manuscript to life, and to share with children and adults alike the exhuberant, wise, and funny world of animals as seen by an American literary genius.