Little Man Little Man by BALDWIN, James; CAZAC, Yoran - 1976

New York: The Dial Press, 1976. First American Edition. Octavo. (26 cm. x 19 cm.) 96 pp. Illustrated dust jacket. Likewise illustrated boards. Light sticker residue to upper right corner of jacket. Clipped lower corner front flap with price intact. Minor chip to top of jacket spine. Very Good. "Little Man Little Man" is a collaboration between writer, James Baldwin and artist, Yoran Cazac. Close friends, Baldwin chose Cazac to illustrate this coming of age story of two Black boys growing up on the streets of Harlem. Baldwin's narrative prose, uses the present lyrical tense of childhood, giving the words a dynamic, rhythmic, intensity. The children and their world, are drawn by Cazac as if they were quick, colorful sketches, constantly moving as if to music. The story is of "TJ" and "WT" -- poor, urban, Black boys who play kid's games in the same streets where they witness the world's brutality against people like themselves. And yet, "Little Man Little Man" is a sweet tale of the poetry that is childhood; a world which lives in color and activity with their small, but obsessive concerns and their big, imaginative dreams. James Baldwin's only children's book. An uncommon book in the Baldwin canon.