Going North (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) [Hardcover]

Janice N. Harrington (Author), Jerome Lagarrigue (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)

An African American family becomes a new kind of pioneer

Leaving behind Big Mama, loving relatives, and the familiar red soil and cotton fields of Alabama, Jessie and her family are going north to Nebraska. They are pioneers searching for a better life, one with decent schools and jobs. But traveling through the segregated South is difficult for an African American family in the 1960s. With most public places reserved for "whites only," where will they stop to get gas and food?

Lyrical free verse and evocative paintings capture the rhythm of the road and a young girl's longing as she wonders: Will I like it there? Will I like the North?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 3-5–This autobiographical story follows an African-American family on their difficult move from Alabama to Nebraska in the 1960s. The journey presents special complications for the young narrator, her siblings, and her parents; they can only buy fuel at "Negro stations" and shop in "Negro stores." Jessie has reservations about leaving all the good things she knows in the South but grows increasingly optimistic about improved prospects elsewhere as she gets farther from home. After several anxious days of driving, the travelers finally arrive in Lincoln, their new frontier. Lagarrigue's paintings are subdued but powerful and well-suited to Harrington's somber, poetic narrative voice. Contrasting shades and changing textures are used to evoke the characters' emotions and to highlight the passing landscape. On the endpapers, an outline map showing the family's journey is painted on a road map, setting the tone for the book. A brief author's note is appended. A solid choice for readers who aren't quite ready for Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 (Dell, 1995).–Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. It's 1964 in Alabama, and Jessie's African American family prepares to leave the South for better jobs and schools. Jessie knows that the best opportunities lie further north, but she doesn't want to leave her beloved grandparents and familiar home: "I wish my toes were roots. / I'd grow into a pin oak and never go away." Then moving day arrives, and the family piles into the station wagon for a long drive to Nebraska. In subtle, cadenced poetry, Harrington brings close the stark realities blacks faced in the segregated South ("Can't stop anywhere. / Only the Negro stations, / only the Negro stores") as well as Jessie's growing excitement as she considers what's ahead: "listening to the tires / make a road-drum, a road-beat: / good luck / good luck / good luck." Lagarrigue's paintings beautifully capture the family scenes in the car and the endless, shifting landscape from the window in soft-edged, thickly brushed strokes that heighten the emotions in Jesse's words--the nostalgia, the worry, and the bittersweet hope about a promising new place. Pair this with Jacqueline Woodson's Coming on Home Soon [BKL Ag 04], another quiet, powerful portrait of an African American child's view of family migration. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (August 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374326819
• ISBN-13: 978-0374326814
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going North, April 30, 2008

By 

Miss M's Fourth Graders (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Going North (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) (Hardcover)

Going North, by Jane N. Harrington, is a book about a girl named Jesse and her family. They are going north from Alabama to Alaska. They have to go north so their parents can have a better job. When the mom tells Jesse it's time to go Jesse gets sad .She goes outside touches the dog, feels the dirt and gives a hug to Big Mama. She says farewell to everyone. Big Mama says to take care. Jesse says it back. They leave. Jesse looks out the window and looks at the boys and girls playing. She says good bye, good bye, good bye. After a couple of hours, the car needed gas but the only gas station didn't accept black people. They tried to look for another gas station. Before they knew it they had found a gas station that accepted them. After they had put gas they kept going north. That night they slept in the car. At sunrise they kept on going. After some hours they got there- they were in the city. They wondered how their lives were going to change in the north.

This book has beautiful language and is written like poetry. It has personification like "the road whispers the tires mumble.....good night , good night , good night," This book also has alliteration like " I hear the tires bumping, beating out good bye, good bye, good bye." It also has repetition like "Looking and looking until I finally see. Here is an other example of repetition: "Be brave, be brave, be brave we're together." The lesson I learned from this book was to stay together no matter what.

By Jennifer