Book Review of The Land of Milk and Honey by Joyce Carol Thomas

It's Thursday and it's time to look into another picture book.  Can I just say I love picture books!  It's an art gallery for your lap, to leisurely gaze at beautiful pictures full of story and emotion.

I found these things in abundance along with lilting poetry that tells the story of a young girl with her family on their way to the Land of Milk and Honey.

The Land of Milk and Honey is written by Joyce Carol Thomas and illustrated by Floyd Cooper, both of whom are award winning in their crafts.

In this story, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in 2012, we go along on a journey with the author as a young girl, leaving Oklahoma for the far away place of California.  She dreams of this land of milk and honey, a place of promise and hope.

Ms. Thomas' voice is full of lovely poetic imagery like, "if you bite into a strawberry and taste heaven in your mouth" and "... I catch the desert dance of a coyote chasing a rabbit through tumbling sage bush."  Her words are pictures in themselves and Mr. Cooper's paintings, full of warm light, seem to be the words come to life before our eyes.

I love the faces of the children, full of playfulness and joy.  The mother is elegant and steadfast as she guides them on their way.  I feel the hope they feel as they arrive in this land of promise - as the title implies with biblical language.

This is a sweet, joyful story that expresses well the excitement and hope of the emigrant  whether from another country or another state.  New beginnings are full of promise and this delightfully told and illustrated book turns from any doubts about those beginnings and fully embraces the possibilities when a new journey starts.

Thanks for stopping by to read my review.  You can find The Land of Milk and Honey at Amazon or your local library.  I would love for you to leave a comment!