Children of Long Ago

Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Parents' Choice Award Winner, Parents' Choice Foundation

A celebration of African American childhood in the early 1900s, as told through 17 poems that detail the daily pleasures of young children's lives.

What was it like long ago? What did children do? Were they like me? Did they feel the same way I do? These are things all children wonder about. Lessie Jones Little, mother of distinguished children's book author Eloise Greenfield, answers these questions for children by drawing on memories from her own rural childhood in the early 1900s. In this collection of lyrical, warmhearted poems, children splash through puddles, wait with anticipation for Papa to come home, and share a special reading time with Grandma, much like children of today.

In the new introduction, Eloise Greenfield pays loving tribute to her mother--to her creativity, to her vision, and to the timelessness of the words she has left for all of us.

Eloise Greenfield (Introduction) is the award-winning author of over 35 books for children. She was born in North Carolina and grew up in Washington, DC, where she still lives.