Come walk down the street....

Night on Neighborhood Street is a soulful collection of 17 short poems written by award-winning author Eloise Greenfield. Accompanied by Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s dream-like illustrations, the poems will allow the reader to experience the nights of African American children growing up in the city. The children in these poems play together on the sidewalk and go to sleepovers.  At night, they drift off to sleep while listening to the sounds of the city which include the sounds of jazz music in the distance. Poems also provide realistic views of children who have to care for younger siblings and resist drug sellers. Readers will also feel the worries that accompany sickness or job-loss in the home.  Together the poems capture the struggles and hopes of urban African American neighborhoods.

Children will enjoy learning about the rhythm and repetition in Night on Neighborhood Street.  At the same, they can explore the concepts of neighborhoods and communities. Older children might compare their community to the one described by Greenfield in her poems. They might compare where they play to where the children in the book play. Children might also explore the roles of adults in the book’s neighborhood after reading The Meeting, a poem in which adults gather to discuss important neighborhood issues. Perhaps older students might make up their own neighborhood meeting and act it out.

While drugs and job-loss are difficult topics to discuss, Greenfield’s text and Gilchrist’s illustrations artfully expose these issues without making the content too adult for young readers. The poem The Seller depicts children turning their backs against drugs in their neighborhood. Perhaps the recent economic downfall will make the poem Nerissa especially relevant as it describes the child’s view of a family in which one parent is sick and the other is out-of-work.  On a more positive note, children will also relate to the fun memories in the poem Fambly Time, in which an African American family plays together before bedtime.  Most obviously, Night on Neighborhood Street will foster the celebration of African American heritage for generations to come.

Interestingly, author Eloise Greenfield also grew up in an African American urban community within Washington DC. This makes her a true cultural insider! She has written many children’s books that celebrate African American heritage.  Among many awards she was won, she received the NCTE Award of Excellence in Poetry for Children in 1997. The website Brain Pop Jr offers additional information about Eloise Greenfield and activities that relate to Night on Neighborhood Street. Click here to check it out.