The Great Migration

Emma Williams, Collection Development Specialist at Booksource

7/19/2012 2:36:39 PM
This book opens with a note from the author about her own participation in the great migration. She says, “I was too little to know it then, but I had become a part of the Great Migration.” On that personal note begins a beautiful picture book with a collection of free verse poems that really pull at the heart strings. Most of the poems, such as “Woman” and “Girl and Boy,” are told in the voice of anonymous characters that are on their way to a new life up north. The poetry portrays the feelings of fear, reluctance, resolution, and hope of the more than a million African Americans who left their homes in the south from 1915 to 1930. The short and touching poems will make for great read-alouds. This title pairs well with The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence, which gives additional background information and features a series of Lawrence’s paintings.