Visiting Day [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Woodson (Author), James Ransome (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson has written a poignant picture book about a little girl who waits hopefully for her father's release from prison.

Only on visiting day is there chicken frying in the kitchen at 6 a.m. And Grandma in her Sunday dress, humming soft and low,... As the little girl and her grandmother get ready for visiting day, her father, who adores her, is getting ready, too. The community of families who take the long bus ride upstate to visit loved ones share hope and give comfort to each other. Love knows no boundaries. Here is a story of strong families who understand the meaning of unconditional love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This poignant picture book chronicles a joyful girl narrator's hard-to-bear anticipation and special preparations for a journey with her grandmother to see her father. Both text and artwork keep the destination a mystery, wisely focusing instead on the excitement of the upcoming reunion. As Woodson's (The Other Side) rhythmic prose, punctuated by the refrain ("only on visiting day"), builds a sense of expectation, Ransome (Satchel Paige), too, underscores the build-up. Wordless spreads depict Grandma fixing the narrator's hair and the pair climbing aboard the bus. Meanwhile, the girl imagines her father making his own preparations. Ransome portrays a handsome man in khaki shirt and slacks; a calendar on the wall marks the days to his daughter's visit, hanging next to her artwork accented with red hearts. Ultimately, "the bus pulls up in front of a big old building where, as Grandma puts it, Daddy is doing a little time." Ransome shows barbed-wire atop high walls and a guard tower in stern relief against a perfect blue sky. Throughout, he uses a radiant, rich, marine blue (the bus's accents, the girl's dress and a prison guard's uniform) to contrast freedom and captivity. Told completely from a child's perspective, the narrative makes no judgment about what Daddy did or why he's incarcerated. A shared feeling of hope and family togetherness pervades each spread, from Grandma cooking fried chicken in the morning for the bus ride, to the narrator sitting down with crayons when she gets home to make Daddy more pictures. Any child who has been separated from a loved one can identify with the feelings of this winning heroine. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590400053
• ISBN-13: 978-0590400053
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #700,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacqueline Woodson's awards include 3 Newbery Honors, a Coretta Scott King Award and 3 Coretta Scott King Honors, 2 National Book Awards, a Margaret A. Edwards Award and an ALAN Award -- both for Lifetime Achievement in YA Literature. She is the author of more than 2 dozen books for children and young adults and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We need it, I like it., February 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Visiting Day (Hardcover)

Touching, loving, and real.

Told from the point of a little girl whose father is in prison, this is a book more about enduring love than anything else.

Too often, books about difficult times are preachy or too wordy. This one gets straight to the point: I love my dad. I see him when I can. He loves me and we are glad to have family.

Good for children in that situation, good for compassion for others, and also a very readable story.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Special Day with Dad, June 22, 2003

By 

TheRAWKidzReview - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visiting Day (Hardcover)

VISITING DAY is a book about special day each month for the little girl who narrates this story. It is a day when she gets to dress up, look pretty, ride a bus with her grandmother, eat chicken and other goodies, but most of all she gets to visit her incarcerated father. Told and illustrated from a child's point of view, the story shows how children have unconditional love for their parents, even if a parent has made a mistake.

Jacqueline Woodson has taken a controversial topic and made an extraordinary book. The story does not criticize, but instead shows love, and James Ransome's true to life illustrations adds to the happy feeling and tone of the book. Although this is an excellent book for all children, I highly recommend this book to any child who is forced to deal with having a family member incarcerated.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Book About A Sensitive Subject, December 21, 2005

By 

Julia Masi "Julia Masi" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visiting Day (Hardcover)

Family is a familiar theme of children's books but this one tackles the difficult task of honoring the incarcerated father.
The strength of a grandmother's love holds this family intact.
Handled delicately and told from the point of view of a child confident that her father loves and misses her. Excitement mounts as the girl prepares to visit her dad. Beautiful language describes the bus ride and camaraderie of the passangers. The illustrations are amazing in their attention to detail. Its the little things in the background, a calendar, girl's drawings taped to wall of her dad's cell that make this book so engaging.

Neither melodramatic nor sugar coated, Visiting Day presents a snapshot of a family with candor and grace.

Note to teachers, mentors and counselors, this is a perfect addtion to your "sensitive" book collection. Wonderful for starting a discussion with older children but best used as a one on one read aloud.