Author/Illustrator: Sherley Anne Williams/Carole Byard
Genre: Historical Fiction
Awards: Caldecott Honor Award
Age Level: 5-10 years old
Summary: From a child's point of view using Black English, the reader is given a look into the African migrant life of days spent o the cotton fields. Her days begin while it is still dark out and she is fast asleep. With a hazy sky and cold temperature, the African family can't wait for the sun to be out to burn out the fog and warm up the sky. Even though she is becoming a big girl, she still can't carry the weight of her own cotton sack so she has to help pile the cotton that her mom picks. The descriptive words for the smell of cotton brings the reader to a place side-by-side of the young girl as she expresses the endless rows of cotton ahead. Her daddy works hard and always has the longest sack. Mama brings lunch for the family to relieve the family and give them so time to rest. The little girl always sees kids on the field and expresses how she rarely sees the same kids twice because they move to different fields so rapidly. Finally, at the end of a tiresome day, the bus picks them up and brings them back for a quick night's rest only to repeat again.
Illustrations: Impressionist paintings are the bold coloring of choice. The illustrations of the cotton seem to be so fluffy as if they could be plucked right off the page. Eyes of the characters stand out, as for they are sad and helpless eyes.
In my classroom, I would read this book to the students for a history lesson. I would bring in real dried cotton and allow them to feel the texture and respond to how the book made them feel. Appreciation and thankfulness to live in a free world now would be expressed throughout the lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment