I was never taught about the great migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West during my public school days (pretty much, we only learned about wars), but the older I get, the more influential I realize this migration was on American history. I like the way this book shows the changes through the generations, and the links between past and present.

EducatingParents.org rating: Caution - Read With Care
Beautifully written and illustrated. Just be prepared to discuss the reason for the Great Migration

This is a simple, elegantly told story that follows a family--and a rope--north to New York during the Great Migration. It covers three generations, from a child jumping rope to her daughter going off to college to her granddaughter jumping with the same rope. We see the way places and circumstances can change, but we bring with us the things we hold most dear--and who. James Ransome's bold shapes and coarse brushstrokes lend a timelessness to the pages that fits perfectly with Jacqueline Woodson's carefully chosen words. This is a powerful book about culture, family, and the resilience that comes from knowing what's important throughout the years.

The story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer.
She has no idea the rope will become part of her family’s history.

Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963) is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys,
and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017,
she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018–19. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.

Love the connection of a piece of rope, used for different purposes through different generations. Six million Americans left their homes in the South for better opportunities elsewhere--we need more of their stories. ( )