Working Cotton

written by Sherley Anne Williams
illustrated by Carole Byard

Children's book review by Steve Barancik

Not for children in this reviewer's opinion

A modern-day black family picks cotton

I'll be frank. I resent this book.

I resent a book that seems to want to get at adults through their children. If you want to talk to me, talk to me.

The decidedly unsmiling face staring out from the cover of this book is narrator Shelan. With woefully inadequate grammar, she tells the story of her family going out for a day working cotton.

It isn't pretty. It isn't pleasant. And it certainly isn't hopeful.

I expected a book about slavery, which surely wasn't pretty, pleasant or hopeful either. But there's important educational value to such a book, and children of all races can take some comfort in knowing that that era is behind us, at least in this country.

Who is this book aimed at? Surely it's not intended for a family working the fields today. If your young children are out working cotton with you, chances are picture books aren't within your budget.

So what is the point? To make 4 to 8 year olds feel guilty about their relative comfort?

Well, fortunately, I read this book in a professional context, with no children around. And it did have what I suspect was the desired effect on me. I was shocked. American children working the fields at the tender age of the children depicted? I started surfing. And I did find some shocking stuff.

I'm going to share some of it with you, adult to adult. If you're motivated to do something, visit the people from whom I got the information, The Child Labor Coalition. The following information comes from their site.

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the normal minimum age for employment in agriculture at 14 years, whereas in every other industry the normal minimum age is 16 years.

In agriculture there are three exceptions to the normal age 14 minimum age:

1. A child of ages 12 or 13 may work where a parent or guardian (a) consents to the child’s employment or (b) is employed on the same farm as the child.
2. A child under age 12 may work where (a) the child is employed by a parent or guardian on a farm owned or operated by the parent or guardian, or (b) the child is employed, with the consent of a parent or guardian, on a small farm as defined in the FLSA.
3. A child of age 10 or 11 may work as a hand-harvest laborer for no more than 8 weeks in a year.

In agriculture, the only restriction on hours of employment is that children cannot work during school hours. Apart from this requirement, there is no limit on how early in the day children may begin work or how late in the day they may work, and not even any limit on the number of hours in the day that they may work.

Outside of agriculture, there are far greater hours-of-work protections for child workers. Specifically, those 14- and 15-year-olds as described above who are permitted to work in certain retail, service, and gasoline service station jobs cannot work during school hours, and in addition they cannot work before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. (after 9:00 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day), and they cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day or more than 18 hours in a school week, or more than 8 hours on a non-school day or more than 40 hours in a non-school week.

There you have it. Now you don't need the book. You can do something, and your children don't have to suffer with this knowledge.

Illustrator Carole Byard earned a 1993 Caldecott Honor for her acrylic paintings here. The text is drawn largely from poems published by Ms. Williams in her 1975 book, The Peacock Poems, still in print as of this writing and, more importantly, aimed at adults.

Working Cotton.

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