Night on Neighborhood Street (Picture Puffins)
Grade 1-4-- Warm shades of blues, greens, and lavenders as well as the characters' gently, glowing shades of browns perfectly capture Night on Neighborhood Street . Each of Greenfield's poems deals with everyday concerns and delights of African-American city children: a lonely boy gazes at the moon, waiting for his "best, best friend" to come home; a newborn baby swaddled in pink cries because she's "too tiny a girl/ for this big new world." Nerissa tries to cheer her unemployed father and ill mother "by telling them the best old/ bedtime jokes." The most powerful poem is "The Seller," who "comes around/ carrying in his many pockets/packages of death." The final poem depicts a young mother playing a trumpet on a porch late at night. She "blows lullaby sounds/ into the silence/ the children hear and smile/ their sleep deepens/ and they are at peace/ with the night." A warm, triumphant book that will be wonderful to share with a group or in a more cozy situation. --Eve Larkin, Chicago Public LibraryCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.