Mindy Hardwick (Children's Literature)
Jessie and her family are leaving Alabama and going north. Bye to Big Mama and the red sand and cotton fields as car tires make the road a drum and a road beat saying good luck, good luck, good luck. The author's story told in verse, along with soft illustrations creates a successful book. Harrington captures the sights and sounds of her text in a rich integration of the five senses. This often forgotten story of the African American family who became pioneers and started a brand new life in the north makes a welcome addition to the growing numbers of children's stories about first hand accounts of the African-American experience. The book is a wonderful addition for classroom teachers in grades third through fifth who want to share other perspectives on American history with their students. 2004, Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar Straus and Giroux, $ 16.00. Ages 5 to 8.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2005)
In Janice Harrington’s debut picture book, a young African American girl describes her family’s move from the South to the North in their “banana bright” yellow car. Jessie doesn’t want to leave Big Mama and the rest of her family in Alabama, but she has no choice. She chronicles the journey—including tense minutes when her daddy drives “knuckle-tight” watching for a Negro gas station where they can safely fill their almost-empty gas tank. And she begins to wonder if there may be possibilities she hadn’t considered. “Maybe the North will be better.” By the time they arrive in Lincoln, Nebraska, Jessie has embraced a new outlook: “Daddy, Mama, / Brother, Baby Sister, and me, / all pioneers, all looking out, / hearing a heart-drum / be brave / be brave / Be brave. / We’re together. / Pioneers.” Harrington based her story—which reads like a narrative poem with its graceful use of language, imagery and rhythm—on her own childhood move in 1964. CCBC categories: Picture Books for School-Aged Children. 2004, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 32 pages, $16.00. Ages 6-9.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 15))
Any child who has ever faced the upheaval of a cross-country move will relate to this gorgeous, autobiographical picture-book poem about an African-American family that moves north from Alabama to Nebraska in 1964. The girl protagonist doesn't want to go-she wants to stay with Big Mama and peel sweet potatoes: "But Going-North Day hurries to our door / like it's tired of our slowpokey ways." As the yellow station wagon heads north (a journey mapped on the endpapers), the girl watches the world go by, thoughts echoing the rhythms of the road: "good / bye / good / bye / good / bye." The family almost runs out of gas because the segregated stations won't serve them, but the African-American-owned Joe's Gas pulls through, and the girl thinks maybe the North will be better "may / be / may / be / may / be." The impressionistic, color-rich paintings are as warm and expressive as the lyrical story, a nighttime view of the car's headlights and taillights cutting the midnight-blue darkness is as stunning as the full-bleed, double-page spread of big sky and cotton fields. 2004, Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 40p, $16.00. Category: Picture book. Ages 3 to 6. Starred Review. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2004 (Vol. 58, No. 3))
Leaving behind a loving assembly of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends, Jessie and her family load their banana-yellow station wagon with all they own and head North toward a better life, away from the segregated South of the early '60s. Jessie's questions and worries about leaving home are met with "don't knows," but as she feels the tension of a low gas gauge with only white gas stations in sight, she begins to think that maybe things will be better for her family up North. The thrums of Harrington's language beat out the road rhythms of a long car trip. Her attention to detail deepens the symbolic resonance of the family's journey; for instance, it is as if the land itself offers the family welcome, with the dirt symbolically and actually changing from the red clay of Alabama to the fertile black earth of Nebraska. Lagarrigue's deeply hued, soul-stirring landscapes escort the family from that red earth, across the drifted white cotton fields of Mississippi, through the turquoise night sky of Arkansas, to the verdant welcome of Nebraska. His people are warm and wistful, and his grainy, rough-brushed surfaces give the impression of being hazed over with the memory of the hope that pushed these pioneers northward. Together, text and illustration offer an almost tangible embodiment of the regrets that accompany leaving and the anticipation of better things to come. This offers a keen emotional verification to similar accounts of African-American families leaving the segregated South, but it will have appeal for any family leaving the familiar in search of something better. An author's note is included. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Kroupa/Farrar, 40p, $16.00. Ages 5-8 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2005)
This poignant story of an African-American family's decision to move North in quest of a better life is told from young Jessie's perspective, in rhythmic, image-filled prose. Subdued illustrations capture the varying moods of the narration, whose credible plot and poetic language invite reading aloud. An author's note provides historical background for the autobiographical story. Category: Picture Books. 2004, Farrar/Kroupa, 40pp, $16.00. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.