Synopses & Reviews
An African-American child dreams of long-ago Africa, where she sees animals, shops in a marketplace, reads strange words from an old book, and returns to the village where her long-ago granddaddy welcomes her. ‘Greenfields lyrical telling and Byards marvelous pictures make this book close to an ideal adventure for children, black or white. —Publishers Weekly.
1978 Coretta Scott King Award
Synopsis
In this stunning Coretta Scott King Award-winning picture book, take a magical and resonant journey to Africa.
I went all the way to Africa / In a dream one night / I crossed over the ocean / In a slow, smooth jump...
In words that sing and pictures that evoke the rich life and culture of the African continent, here is a book that makes real the deepest longings and imaginings of children for the faraway land of their ancestors. A classic picture book for sharing at home or in the classroom.
Greenfield's lyrical telling and Byard's marvelous pictures make this book close to an ideal adventure for children, black or white. (Publishers Weekly)
Eloise Greenfield's many books include
Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems and
How They Got Over: African Americans and the Call of the Sea. She is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, the Foundation for Children's Literature Hope S. Dean Award, and the National Council for the Social Studies Carter G. Woodson Book Award. In 2018 she received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Artist Carole Byard was an award-winning illustrator of children's books and the recipient of a Caldecott Honor as well as multiple Coretta Scott King Awards.--
Publishers WeeklyAbout the Author
Eloise Greenfield is a celebrated poet and the author of more than forty books for children, including the Coretta Scott King Award winner
Africa Dream; the Coretta Scott King Honor books
Mary Mcleod Bethune and
Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, co-written with Lessie Jones Little; and the
Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award Book
I Can Draw a Weeposaur and Other Dinosaurs. Ms. Greenfield is the recipient of the Hope S. Dean Award from the Foundation for Children's Literature and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children for the body of her work, and she has been inducted into the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. "Honey, I Love," the title poem of one of her most wellknown poetry collections, will be illustrated as a picture book in honor of the collection's twenty-fifth anniversary of publication.