In the Land of Milk and Honey

by Joyce Carol Thomas, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Overview

Lemons as big as oranges, the cool Pacific Ocean, mountains that rise up beyond the outstretched bay—California beckons as one girl makes her way west on a journey filled with excitement, hope, and the promise of a place where people from all paths come together and music fills the air.

This is the true story of author Joyce Carol Thomas's trip from Oklahoma to California in 1948, when she moved there as a girl. During that time, many people went west, drawn by warmth and possibility, reflected in the people of all cultures and ethnicities who started a new life there.

Coretta Scott King honoree Joyce Carol Thomas and Coretta Scott King Award winner Floyd Cooper capture the anticipation of a bright adventure and a world filled with freedom and opportunity. Included in Brightly's list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids.

I ease myself back in the window seat

and breathe in

as the train breathes out

We're on our way!

On our way

to the Land of Milk and Honey

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063219342
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	437,759
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Joyce Carol Thomas is an internationally renowned author who received the National Book Award for her first novel, Marked By Fire, and a Coretta Scott King Honor for The Blacker the Berry and for her first picture book, Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea. Her picture book I Have Heard of a Land received a Coretta Scott King Honor and an IRA/CBC Teachers' Choice Award and was an ALA Notable Book. Her other titles include The Gospel Cinderella, Crowning Glory, Gingerbread Days, and A Gathering of Flowers. Ms. Thomas lives in Berkeley, California.

Floyd Cooper received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea and I Have Heard of a Land. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Cooper received a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma and, after graduating, worked as an artist for a major greeting card company. His many beloved books form a lasting legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Thomas's free-flowing verse is also hopeful, heralding the promise of the family's future life. Her imagery spans the senses, as the girl takes in the sounds, sights, and even tastes of her new home.”  — Publishers Weekly

“Poetic language distinguished by strong verbs and striking images…Thomas and Cooper have given us…a moving love song.” — Kirkus Reviews

"Nostalgic and sweet, Thomas’s word images truly present a 'land of milk and honey.'"  — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

The creators of I Have Heard of a Land recreate another chapter from Thomas's childhood, her family's 1948 move from Oklahoma to California. In an author's note, Thomas mentions her adopted state's special "quality of light" and the "joy and possibility" reflected in the faces of those who migrated there. Light and joy are integral to Cooper's hazy paintings, too: the narrator and her siblings jump up and down as their sunlit train pulls into the station; from the train window, the girl sees a smiling migrant worker in a bright field; and light shimmers on musicians and dancers at "the welcome party" in San Francisco. Thomas's free-flowing verse is also hopeful, heralding the promise of the family's future life. Her imagery spans the senses, as the girl takes in the sounds, sights, and even tastes of her new home: "Daddy says,/ ‘If the lemons are big as oranges/ if the oranges are big as grapefruits/ if you bite into a strawberry/ and taste heaven in your mouth/ why, you're in California/ the Land of Milk and Honey.' " Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 2—In lyric, poetic language, Thomas describes the journey her family took from Oklahoma to their new home in California in 1948. Her story captures the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the experience. Reading her words aloud will transport listeners along with Thomas on the train trip: "We ride into late afternoon/past a snake whose body is a pen/writing calligraphy/on the paper-dry earth." Oil wash paintings depict the love the family shares and the young girl's excitement, as well as the bountiful fruits and vegetables growing in the sunny environment. The time period is reflected in the clothes, train, and cars. The author's note explains that her mother's illness was the impetus for the move, but the story itself does not explore that aspect. Instead, California is depicted as a paradise of racial diversity and economic prosperity. Nostalgic and sweet, Thomas's word images truly present a "land of milk and honey."—Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

School Library Journal

Based on her family's move from Oklahoma to California in 1948 when she was 10, Thomas tells of the train trip and her subsequent love for the "Golden State" in poetic language distinguished by strong verbs and striking images. It was a time soon after World War II, when many people of color relocated. She relates the long train ride to the "Land of Milk and Honey" and describes the state in its varied landscapes, from deserts to the agricultural richness of the Central Valley and the people who work the crops to "the city / where the ships sit / anchored in the coastal waters / like iron mountains / docked in the bay." Cooper's art, in textured sepia with bits of color to highlight action, shows the people--all of whom are African-American--as a young person might have experienced what she saw, reinforcing the text's homey details: The narrator chases her sandwich "with Grapette soda pop / the bottle streaked with marbles of cold." His paintings expand over full openings and carry the eye with portraits of people and places from Southern California to the Golden Gate Bridge. But both text and illustration concentrate on the people who found the "Land of Milk and Honey"--and remained. Thomas and Cooper have given us, especially Californians, a moving love song. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews