Sometimes, growing things is not an experience full of beauty and wonder. Sometimes the garden in question is an endless field of Arkansas cotton worked by children.
Cotton in My Sack is one of Lois Lenski’s regional stories, which she researched by visiting children of different parts of the country and seeing how they really experienced life. What’s amazing about this one is just how relevant it is today (which is why it is all the more sad that it’s out of print).
There are all sorts of class issues relating to poverty exposed in this book. The family goes to town with their cotton money and spends it all immediately, but mostly on non-essential items, leaving them unprepared for the future. The receive lectures from the boss’s wife on how they spend their money. The school offers a free lunch and free milk, but the children have been instructed not to take it by their mama. The only milk they have comes in a carnation can. There’s no money for a doctor when accidents occur. The children believe that if you run out of money, you can just get it from the boss, which is what their Daddy does. But loans from the boss come with an 8% interest rate. And as it turns out, even the “rich” people are in debt, buying on credit and waiting for money to come in.
This would be an absolutely amazing book to read and discuss, especially with children who are currently caught in a cycle of poverty or at risk of becoming caught in one. It has lessons for children of all backgrounds on the dangers of buying on credit and the worth of saving up for something. In a day and age when more and more people have limited financial knowledge and make unwise financial choices, here’s a children’s book that’s not afraid to talk about the issue. Most importantly though, is that it’s a story of a little girl and her family that will actually interest readers.
I would say this could be easily read by grades 3 and up.
Sign of the Times – Lenski uses the words “Negro” and “colored” throughout. This book was published in 1949. Interestingly enough, there are people of different races working and shopping together. One woman even comments that “we’re all the same color when the lights are out,” and another replies that she doesn’t think it matters to the Lord what color anyone’s skin is. This is very advanced for the South in the forties.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s talk of “taking my switch” after someone and someone “whooping” someone. Daddy has a gun he uses for hunting. Cops wear guns. Joanda paddles her sister. Mama threatens to set one of the children’s clothes afire if she doesn’t behave. Mama tells one of the children that she’d get after her with a gun. Daddy will tan the hides of anyone who steals his watermelons. Daddy would have shot a thief with his shotgun if he’d had the chance.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Joanda asks her brother if he chews tobacco, smokes a pipe or dips snuff. He emphatically answers no to all three. A boy gets run over by a tractor, but the injury seems to be just a broken leg.
Frightening or Intense Things – Mama is very sick. They say she’s had several heart attacks. There is a fire. A little girl is lost several times and once nearly drowns.
