I Have Heard of a Land (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

I Have Heard of a Land (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books) by Thomas, Joyce Carol. hardcover edition. ISBN: 0046594015952.

I have heard of a land Where the imagination has no fences Where what is dreamed one night Is accomplished the next day In the late 1880s, signs went up all around America -- land was free in the Oklahoma territory. And it was free to everyone: Whites, Blacks, men and women alike. All one needed to stake a claim was hope and courage, strength and perseverance. Thousands of pioneers, many of them African-Americans newly freed from slavery, headed west to carve out a new life in the Oklahoma soil. Drawing upon her own family history, National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Thomas has crafted an unforgettable anthem to these brave and determined people from Americas past. Richly illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award honoree Floyd Cooper, I Have Heard of a Land is a glorious tribute to the Afrian-American pioneer spirit. National Book Award-winning author Joyce Carol Thomas draws on family history for this lyrical account of Americas little-known past. In the late 1880s, thousands of pioneers, many African Americans newly freed from slavery, raced to the Oklahoma Territory. Here all one needed to stake a claim was hope and courage and the determination to journey west. Richly illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award Honor -- recipient Floyd Cooper and complete with an authors endnote, I Have Heard of a Land commemorates the strength of the African-American pioneers. It is a hymn to liberty and unity, an ode to a land where what can be dreamed can be accomplished. 00-01 Sequoyah Childrens Book Award Masterlist