Coretta Scott King Award Book-- "The Great Migration"

                The book “The Great Migration: Journey to the North” written by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist is a book that displays the experiences of African-American families who left their homes to move North in search of better lives.  It explains the perspectives of each member of the family during the Great Migration.  The most meaningful part about the book is that Greenfield and Gilchrist both used their own personal experiences of being a part of the Great Migration to create the book.

                “The Great Migration” addresses diversity by showing the perspective of multiple African-Americans.  The book takes place between 1915 and 1930 and shows the fear that was embedded within the African-American culture of the Ku Klux Klan and the desire for a better life.  The book also shows how many African-American men had a connection with the land on which they worked.  The girl and the boy in the story are filled with wonder and excitement about the journey.  The woman has to do hard work for very pay.  She encounters signs wherever she goes telling her where she can go and what she can do.  The woman is ready to escape the southern town.  All of these examples show the diversity of African-American culture during the time of the Great Migration.

                The story of “The Great Migration,” shows how far the African Americans were willing to go to find a chance to make a good life.  They were willing to move their entire families based on the hope that things would be better further north.  The book emphasizes the courage needed for the families to pack their bags and move to a new city to start afresh. 

                In reading this book, the reader’s eyes are opened to the hardships and challenges that African-Americans had to face during the Great Migration.  The book hints at the segregation and limited opportunities that African-Americans were facing during the early 1900s.  The illustrations of the book convey the worry and stress that was placed upon African-Americans who took part in the Great Migration.  “The Great Migration” is an eye-opening tale about how the African-Americans sacrificed their comfort in search of a better life.