This child’s view of the long day’s work in the cotton fields, simply expressed in a poet’s resonant language, is a fresh and stirring look at migrant family life. “With its restrained poetic text and impressionist paintings, this is a picture book for older readers, too.”--Booklist
本書以一位非裔美籍的女孩Shelan的口吻來敘述他們一家所從事的一項艱辛工作的情形。即使生活再怎么困苦，Shelan一家人還是有辦法找到讓自己快樂的方式，他們盡情地擁抱大自然，對未來永遠抱持著希望。

書本內容是根據作者小時候的童年經歷所寫成，她以女孩Shelan的第一人稱來敘述故事并且使用方言來表現，讓書中所描述的情景更寫實，雖然讀者可能得多花一些時間來理解這些較少見的語句措辭，但是這會讓整個故事讀起來更有感觸，也更能感動人心。除了特殊的遣辭用句，美麗的插畫描繪出加州風光明媚的景色以及書中主人翁努力求生存令人動容的樣貌，與文章帶給讀者同樣的感動。

Grade 6 Up–Chopra presents inspirational life lessons spoken in parables by a mysterious teacher who leads an unnamed narrator through a four-day retreat of self-discovery. With the guidance of Baba, the 15-year-old comes to know his true self by generating answers to four major questions: "Do I have a soul? How do wishes come true? What is the supreme force in the universe? How can I change the world?" The teen and Baba spend a day discussing each question; these four sections are divided into smaller lessons or chapters that end with the young man describing what he learned and how he has applied Baba's wisdom to his life. The didactic text demonstrates a cosmic connection between the soul and all things in deliberate, forced dialogue between the teen and his teacher, and the narrator's internal conversation. The prominent themes are consistent with those common to the genre: finding order in chaos, looking for the missing "something" in life, meaningful communication, and understanding and belief in what one cannot see. The book is rather like Antoine de Saint Exupéry's Le Petit Prince meets Chicken Soup for the Soul. The final section, "A Soul Alphabet," contains inspirational words and motivational prose: appreciation, beyond, communicate…. This nondenominational offering could serve as a textbook for a course on self-exploration, faith, or spiritual discovery.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH

從天不亮還是勞作到天黑，這是黑人的生活，也是勞動人民的生活。你跟孩子說你的生活幸福來之不易，不如讓他看一本這樣的書。