Oh Lord, I Wish I Was a Buzzard »

Polly Greenberg was a founder of the Child Development Group of Mississippi, a Head Start program initiated in 1965 and operated by several thousand African-American sharecroppers and other low-income people. She lives in Washington D.C.

Aliki Aliki has contributed to some 200 books for children, over 55 of which she has written and illustrated. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor and the Jane Addams Peace Award for Picture Book. She lives in Londo

"We picked and we picked and we picked and we picked..." From dawn to dusk, a little girl harvests cotton with her family during the sweltering crop season. Imagining her way through the endless day, she wishes she could be anyone else-from a snake curved up and cool to a buzzard going round and round in the sky. Then at last, sunset approaches and a special treat awaits.

Polly Greenberg's rhythmic, easy-to-read text and Aliki's striking sun-soaked illustrations together make an unforgettable tale-part story, part song, and all poetry. Though based on a sharecropper's childhood memory from generations ago, this timeless story reflects everyone's wish to escape...and to be as free as a bird. First published in 1968, it is a powerful today as the day it was first told.

Candice Ransom - Children's Literature

"When I was a little girl, we walked out to the cotton field in the morning with the sun shining pretty on the land." So begins this simple story of an African-American girl, her brother, and parents as they harvest cotton on a scorching day. As the narrator fills her burlap sack, she sees different animals and wishes she were in their place, free as a butterfly or cool as a snake. Based on a childhood memory of Gladys Henton, the lyrical tale captures the backbreaking work with the refrain, "We picked and we picked and we picked and we picked." At day's end, the children receive their reward, a sucker. The narrator keeps the candy part in her hand and puts the stick in her mouth to give the impression of having lots of candy. Aliki's paintings in shades of brown and sepia, hot-sun orange, and cotton-boll white are reminiscent of batik fabric or linoleum block prints. Lots of white space convey soul-sapping Delta heat, while the pull-back panorama scenes illustrates the enormity of the task. First published in 1968, the reissued text has an author's note about the Child Development Group of Mississippi project and a note to families and teachers about child labor. 2002 (orig. 1968), SeaStar books,