ama_reads's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the illustrations. The story was lacking and ended abruptly.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
5.0
Caldecott Honor. Picking cotton by hand from the perspective of a migrant worker child working with her family. Text is okay. Art is stunning, vivid and big. It's a long day and it's captured well enough here to make you tired.
cmhart18's review against another edition
3.0
Historical Fiction.
About a family who are slaves -- their day picking up cotton. Beautiful illustrations.
About a family who are slaves -- their day picking up cotton. Beautiful illustrations.
calistareads's review against another edition
4.0
This is a story of one girls family and a day in the life of picking cotton. They get to the fields before the sun comes up and then they pick cotton all day long until the sun goes down. They stop for lunch and that is all. That sounds like a tough day to me.
The artwork is acrylic paintings and it is a little blurry, but it does the job of getting the hot sunny days and the endless cotton rows across to the reader. The book transports one into a difficult way of life. We do see the beauty of the day through the eyes of the children. They notice the sky and the clouds and the fact that in a day you spend working all day in the fields, there is still beauty to be had. It's lovely, I think.
The niece couldn’t believe that people would work all day long like that. I told her it happens in many places in this world. She was shocked. She said this was a sad story. The nephew also thought this was a sad story. There was nothing fun about it. I told him that I agreed, there was nothing fun about it. The niece gave this 3 stars and the nephew gave this 2 stars.
The artwork is acrylic paintings and it is a little blurry, but it does the job of getting the hot sunny days and the endless cotton rows across to the reader. The book transports one into a difficult way of life. We do see the beauty of the day through the eyes of the children. They notice the sky and the clouds and the fact that in a day you spend working all day in the fields, there is still beauty to be had. It's lovely, I think.
The niece couldn’t believe that people would work all day long like that. I told her it happens in many places in this world. She was shocked. She said this was a sad story. The nephew also thought this was a sad story. There was nothing fun about it. I told him that I agreed, there was nothing fun about it. The niece gave this 3 stars and the nephew gave this 2 stars.
raoionna's review against another edition
4.0
A sharecropping family does the hard work of picking cotton, told from the POW of the oldest daughter in the family.
emvsmith's review against another edition
3.0
Summary (CIP): A young black girl relates the daily events of her family's migrant life in the fields of central California.
Review: This book transports the reader to the unfamiliar world of a migrant working family. At first reading the time period and setting are hard to determine. The text is poetically written in a voice that sounds and feels authentic for this little girl in this time and place. The illustrations are beautiful, bright, and sensitive.
Horn Book liked it, "Byard's mural-like illustrations contribute weight and emotion to Williams's spare, lyrical text."
Publishers Weekly sums up their positive review with the statement, "An auspicious debut."
Review: This book transports the reader to the unfamiliar world of a migrant working family. At first reading the time period and setting are hard to determine. The text is poetically written in a voice that sounds and feels authentic for this little girl in this time and place. The illustrations are beautiful, bright, and sensitive.
Horn Book liked it, "Byard's mural-like illustrations contribute weight and emotion to Williams's spare, lyrical text."
Publishers Weekly sums up their positive review with the statement, "An auspicious debut."
luann's review
3.0
There's no question as to why this won a Caldecott Honor. The illustrations pull you right into the world of a migrant worker picking cotton. Not only do you feel like you could reach into the book and touch the cotton, you get a sense of the weariness of the workers as you watch sweat rolling down their faces. Told in first-person narrative from the point of view of a young girl who helps her family in the fields, the dialect might be a stumbling block for beginning readers.
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