Author: Sherley Anne Williams
Illustrator: Carole Byard
Awards: Coretta Scott King Award, Caldecott Honor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grades: PK-5
This book is about an African-American girl who would pick cotton in the fields with her family. She tells the story from her point of view starting from the moment they woke up till the end of the night when they were waiting for the bus to take them home. She describes how her mother and father would pick the cotton while she would take care of her younger sibling because she was still too young to pick the cotton. She describes the way the cotton smelled, and how her dad would carry the sac filled with it. She mentions different things such as the food they ate during the day, and how she would see different people every time since they would move to different fields. Before they leave, she mentions how her dad said that "cotton flower this late in the year" bring them luck.
This story is very eye-opening because it is told from the little girl's point of view. I would use this in my classroom to teach students about the tough times African-Americans went through during slavery. This is a good book to use in a slavery lesson, civil rights lesson or general history lesson about the way they treated certain people in the past. Its an appropriate book for students in grades PK through 5 because of the particular point of view that was used that will make students understand the character since they are in the same age group.
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