Working Cotton
Sherley Anne Williams
Illustrated by Carole Byard

• Caldecott Honor Book
• Coretta Scott King Honor Book for Illustration
• ALA Notable Book

“We gets to the fields early, before it even gets light. Sometime I still be sleep.”

“Daddy pick the row side of Ruise and Jesmarie; they picking the row side of us.”

“Mamma keep the baby, Jeanne, and the water jug on the row we be working. Mama sing; Daddy hum.”

…

“Cotton smell like morning, sometime, kind of damp. It smell dusty now. It’s warm, like if you get too close, you see.
“The rows of cotton stretch far as I can see.”

“Daddy pick so smooth and fast.”

. . .

“Mama bring cornbread for lunch, and greens. Sometime, it’s a little piece of meat in your bowl.”

. . .

“It’s a long time to night.

. . .

“The bus come when it’s almost dark. Us all be tired.
Daddy take the baby; Mama take the bundle.
Me and Ruise, Jesmarie carry the sacks.”

 

 

 

 

Williams, Sherley Anne. Working Cotton. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.