The Great Migration: Journey to the North
We were one family among the many thousands. Mama and Daddy leaving home, coming to the city, with their hopes and their courage, their dreams and their children, to make a better life.
In this beautiful collection of poems and collage artwork, award winners Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist gracefully depict the experiences of families like their own, who found the courage to leave their homes behind during the Great Migration and make new lives for themselves elsewhere.
When Eloise Greenfield was four months old, her family moved from their home in Parmele, North Carolina, to Washington, D.C. Before Jan Spivey Gilchrist was born, her mother moved from Arkansas and her father moved from Mississippi. Both settled in Chicago, Illinois. Though none of them knew it at the time, they had all become part of the Great Migration.
The Great Migration concludes with a bibliography.
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Eloise Greenfield's first book was published in 1972. She was the author of forty-eight children's books including Honey, I Love and Other Poems and The Great Migration. She received many awards, including the 2018 Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Eloise was a beloved children's book creator whose pioneering voice, especially for the Black American experience, has made her an inspiration to many generations of readers.
Jan Gilchrist was a fine artist and art educator for nearly twenty years before she entered the children's book field in 1988, with Children of Long Ago. Since then, she has illustrated more than fifty books for children, including many by Eloise Greenfield. Their book, Nathaniel Talking, won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and an Author Honor. Gilchrist was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in 2000 and the Society of Illustrators in 2001. A native of Chicago, she lives in Olympia Fields, Illinois. Visit her online at Jan Spivey Gilchirst.
Together, the immediate words, striking images, and Greenfield's personal story create a powerful, haunting view of a pivotal moment in U.S. history even as they show the universal challenges of leaving home behind and starting a new life. -- Booklist (starred review)
Frequent collaborators Greenfield and Gilchrist (Brothers & Sisters: Family Poems) shape an evocative portrait of African-Americans who moved North during the Great Migration between 1915 and 1930 to escape Ku Klux Klan-fueled racism and to secure better lives...[L]ilting poetry and pictures capture a sense of both apprehension and hope...Making intriguing use of photographs of people, news headlines, maps, and painted elements, each of Gilchrist's collages has a distinctive look and lighting, ranging from conventional portraits of the travelers to more abstract images.
Greenfield's lyricism and her clear, narrative style make this book a solid choice for independent reading and for reading aloud. -- School Library Journal
