Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
The powerful and personal story of one American childhood
When Mr. Williams was a boy growing up in Arcadia, Louisiana, Calvin Coolidge was president, Martin Luther King Jr. had just been born, and children worked hard in the fields for most of the year.
Many years later, Karen Barbour grew up hearing Mr. Williams tell stories about his childhood. In this beautiful book, she not only shares the memories he passed on to her but also creates stunning paintings to illustrate them.
The story of Mr. J. W. Williams, lovingly told by his friend, evokes a specific time and place in American history in a way that is immediate, intimate, and relevant.
Synopsis
The powerful and personal story of one American childhood
When Mr. Williams was a boy growing up in Arcadia, Louisiana, Calvin Coolidge was president, Martin Luther King Jr. had just been born, and children worked hard in the fields for most of the year.
Many years later, Karen Barbour grew up hearing Mr. Williams tell stories about his childhood. In this beautiful book, she not only shares the memories he passed on to her but also creates stunning paintings to illustrate them.
The story of Mr. J. W. Williams, lovingly told by his friend, evokes a specific time and place in American history in a way that is immediate, intimate, and relevant.
Publishers Weekly
Barbour's (I Have an Olive Tree) picture-book biography records the reminiscences ("as he told them to me," says an author's note) of Mr. Williams, born in 1929 on an African-American farmstead in Arcadia, La. From the unadorned language, peppered with particulars, a poetic simplicity emerges: "I grew up in a house made of pine with my mother and father and six brothers, five sisters, cows, pigs, chickens, guinea hens, turkeys, dogs, cats, and four mules and one horse." Readers gain a wealth of information about the era. The family received regular ice deliveries, for instance, and drank and bathed in well water because they had no electricity. Children will revel in details about farm life ("Everyone took care of his own mule. You fed it oats and hay and brushed it twice a day.... They'd roll in the dirt and you'd have to brush them all over again"), and Barbour does not shy away from the more unpleasant side of life in the South for Mr. Williams. Sometimes in the winter, as he walked to school, a young white driver would try to run him off the road. Barbour's exquisite paintings combine dark outlines, thick brushstrokes and startling colors (pink mules, a purple star-studded sky), occasionally integrating collage elements of intricate patterns. In her hands, the fields look magical at harvest time, erupting in blossoms and fruits. Barbour's meticulously rendered artwork and Mr. Williams' astute observations vividly dramatize a distinct moment in American history, well worth remembering. Ages 6-10. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Barbour's (I Have an Olive Tree) picture-book biography records the reminiscences ("as he told them to me," says an author's note) of Mr. Williams, born in 1929 on an African-American farmstead in Arcadia, La. From the unadorned language, peppered with particulars, a poetic simplicity emerges: "I grew up in a house made of pine with my mother and father and six brothers, five sisters, cows, pigs, chickens, guinea hens, turkeys, dogs, cats, and four mules and one horse." Readers gain a wealth of information about the era. The family received regular ice deliveries, for instance, and drank and bathed in well water because they had no electricity. Children will revel in details about farm life ("Everyone took care of his own mule. You fed it oats and hay and brushed it twice a day.... They'd roll in the dirt and you'd have to brush them all over again"), and Barbour does not shy away from the more unpleasant side of life in the South for Mr. Williams. Sometimes in the winter, as he walked to school, a young white driver would try to run him off the road. Barbour's exquisite paintings combine dark outlines, thick brushstrokes and startling colors (pink mules, a purple star-studded sky), occasionally integrating collage elements of intricate patterns. In her hands, the fields look magical at harvest time, erupting in blossoms and fruits. Barbour's meticulously rendered artwork and Mr. Williams' astute observations vividly dramatize a distinct moment in American history, well worth remembering. Ages 6-10. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
Barbour speaks to us in the voice of J.W. Williams, whom she knew as a child. His life is a part of African-American history in the South. Born in 1929, in Louisiana where the planting seasons were the focus of life, he lived on a farm near a swamp, with six brothers, assorted animals and five sisters with no electricity or running water. Aside from the hard work, there was time for swimming and fishing, and of course, for church. The text is filled with the memories, the sounds, the tastes, of his youth. He only incidentally notes his fear of "some white people." One young man would come after him in his car and run him off the road. The family Christmas was the high point of the year. "That's how it was then, and that was a long time ago." Barbour's brushed black ink lines and almost crudely applied gouache with collage create rural pre-war Louisiana in a faux folk art style, employing a sophisticated sequence of very stylized figures in decorative settings. Ripe cotton fills a field with white polka-dots. Fruit trees are colored circles with spots of red. A yellow sun fills almost half a page with its brilliance and fringed halo. This is a clean, almost Biblical world full of nature's blessings and family togetherness. There is a brief note about Williams, who died in 2000, and his photograph. 2005, Henry Holt and Company, Ages 6 to 9.—Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz