Oh Lord, I Wish I was a Buzzard — Polly Greenberg

"We picked and we picked and we picked and we picked..." From dawn to dusk, a little girl harvests cotton with her family during the sweltering crop season. Imagining her way through the endless day, she wishes she could be anyone else-from a snake curved up and cool to a buzzard going round and round in the sky. Then at last, sunset approaches and a special treat awaits.

Polly Greenberg's rhythmic, easy-to-read text and Aliki's striking sun-soaked illustrations together make an unforgettable tale-part story, part song, and all poetry. Though based on a sharecropper's childhood memory from generations ago, this timeless story reflects everyone's wish to escape...and to be as free as a bird. First published in 1968, it is a powerful today as the day it was first told.