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
本书以一位非裔美籍的女孩Shelan的口吻来叙述他们一家所从事的一项艰辛工作的情形。即使生活再怎么困苦，Shelan一家人还是有办法找到让自己快乐的方式，他们尽情地拥抱大自然，对未来永远抱持着希望。

书本内容是根据作者小时候的童年经历所写成，她以女孩Shelan的第一人称来叙述故事并且使用方言来表现，让书中所描述的情景更写实，虽然读者可能得多花一些时间来理解这些较少见的语句措辞，但是这会让整个故事读起来更有感触，也更能感动人心。除了特殊的遣辞用句，美丽的插画描绘出加州风光明媚的景色以及书中主人翁努力求生存令人动容的样貌，与文章带给读者同样的感动。

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

从天不亮还是劳作到天黑，这是黑人的生活，也是劳动人民的生活。你跟孩子说你的生活幸福来之不易，不如让他看一本这样的书。