IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY- Joyce Carol Thomas

When Joyce Carol Thomas was about ten, her family boarded a train and immigrated from Oklahoma to California. IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, is Thomas' memoir, a love song to California, that follows the family's journey to their new home. 

IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is a quiet book, brimming with beautiful word portraits. It's not a book that I'm sure kids will love on their own; I think it's one they will fall in love with when they hear it read aloud. I see myself using it again and again in mini-lessons on how authors use details, or on how carefully they choose their words,  or on surprising images.

Listen:

The waiting train huffs

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

And I worry, worry, worry,

Hissing wheels

hiss, hiss, hiss

and I'm afraid we'll

miss, miss, miss

the train! 

************

And so we ride into early afternoons

past quick and slow-stepping lizards

basking hood-eyed 

on dazzling rocks.

We ride into late afternoon

past a snake whose body is a pen

writing calligraphy

on the paper-dry earth.

****************

Beyond the bay

mountains topped with ice cream snow

rise

reaching toward the cloud-powdered sky

in the Land of Milk and Honey 

Thomas' beautiful language is paired with the signature sepia illustrations of one of her favorite partners- Floyd Cooper. Perfect!