Working Cotton

Working Cotton

Written by: Sherley Anne Wiliams
Illustrated by: Carole Byard
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grades: 3-5
Awards: Caldecott Honor

This story follows a young girl, Shelan, and her family working in the cotton fields together. They arrive to the fields early, even before there is light. It is cold and there is fire pit for everyone to warm up by. The father and mother are working rows right next to each other. They both sing and hum as they work. Shelan is a big girl, but not big enough to have her own sack for cotton, so she helps her mother pile cotton together. The cotton can sometimes smell like a damp morning or it can be dusty enough to make you sneeze. Shelan expresses that her father is smooth and fast at picking the bunches of cotton. His sack of cotton is so long that they need to fold it twice to weigh it properly, and that it takes a long time to empty his sack into the trailer. The family has lunch break and have cornbread, greens, and sometimes little pieces of meat in their bowls. Shelan explains that there is always kids working in the field, and so they can be your friends sometimes, but you will hardly see them twice as everyone moves around to a new field sometimes. Going back to work, Shelan older siblings fight over the water and doesn't leave enough for her. It is finally night time and everyone loads back on the bus, finishing the day off.

This is a very interesting book and I think it is necessary to have in everyone's classroom libraries. It is important for the students to realize that it wasn't only adults that worked in cotton fields, but also children. This book would be best fit for third to fifth graders. I would have my students write about how they would feel if they worked in the cotton fields at such a young age. This book would also be fitting to be read aloud during a Civil War unit.