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Under the Sunday Tree
An award-winning picture book poetry collection for children by the legendary poet Eloise Greenfield with illustrations by critically acclaimed artist Amos Ferguson. "The perfect collaboration between two master image-makers." — School Library Journal The twenty poems in this collection are filled with love, humor, dignity, and a deep appreciation for our colorful surroundings. Eloise Greenfield's rich verse is accompanied by the fresh, vivid paintings of Amos Ferguson that are a love song to his native Bahamas. With joyful poems including " To Catch a Fish," "Lucky Little Birds," "To Friendship ," and more, children will absolutely love this accessible picture book.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Eloise Greenfield
74 books54 followersGreenfield was born Eloise Little in Parmele, North Carolina, and grew up in Washington, D.C., during the Great Depression in the Langston Terrace housing project, which provided a warm childhood experience for her.[1] She was the second oldest of five children of Weston W. Little and his wife Lessie Blanche (née Jones) Little (1906–1986). A shy and studious child, she loved music and took piano lessons.[2][3] Greenfield experienced racism first-hand in the segregated southern U.S., especially when she visited her grandparents in North Carolina and Virginia.[4] She graduated from Cardozo Senior High School in 1946 and attended Miner Teachers College until 1949. In her third year, however, she found that she was too shy to be a teacher and dropped out.[5]
Greenfield began work in the civil service at the U.S. Patent Office. In 1950, she married World War II veteran Robert J. Greenfield, a long-time friend. She began writing poetry and songs in the 1950s while working at the Patent Office, finally succeeding in getting her first poem published in the Hartford Times in 1962 after many years of writing and submitting poetry and stories.[6] After joining the District of Columbia Black Writers Workshop in 1971, she began to write books for children. She has published more than 40 children's books, including picture books, novels, poetry and biographies. She says that she seeks to "choose and order words that children will celebrate".[5][7]
Dismayed by the depiction of blacks and black communities in popular media, Greenfield has focused her work on realistic but positive portrayals of African-American communities, families and friendships.[1] These relationships are emphasized in Sister (1974) a young girl copes with the death of a parent with the help of other family members, Me and Nessie (1975) about best friends, My Daddy and I (1991) and Big Friend, Little Friend (1991) about mentoring.[5] Her first book, Bubbles (1972), "sets the tone for much of Greenfield's later work: Realistic portrayals of loving African American parents working hard to provide for their families, and the children who face life's challenges with a positive outlook."[1] In She Come Bringing Me that Little Baby Girl (1974), a boy deals with feelings of envy and learns to share his parents' love when his baby sister arrives. The poignant Alesia (1981) concerns the bravery of a girl handicapped by a childhood accident. Night on Neighborhood Street (1991) is a collection of poems depicting everyday life in an urban community. One of her best-known books, Honey I Love, first published in 1978, is a collection of poems for people of all ages concerning the daily lives and loving relationships of children and families. Her semi-autobiographical book Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir (1979) describes her happy childhood in a neighborhood with strong positive relationships.[5] In the introduction to that book, she explains her interest in biography:
People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, about the experiences they had when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world.[8]
In 1971, Greenfield began work for the District of Columbia Black Writers' Workshop, as co-director of adult fiction and then, in 1973, as director of children's literature. That group's goal was to encourage the writing and publishing of African-American literature. She was writer-in-residence at the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1985-86 and taught creative writing in schools under grants from the Commission. She has also lectured and given free workshops on writing of African-American children's
Greenfield began work in the civil service at the U.S. Patent Office. In 1950, she married World War II veteran Robert J. Greenfield, a long-time friend. She began writing poetry and songs in the 1950s while working at the Patent Office, finally succeeding in getting her first poem published in the Hartford Times in 1962 after many years of writing and submitting poetry and stories.[6] After joining the District of Columbia Black Writers Workshop in 1971, she began to write books for children. She has published more than 40 children's books, including picture books, novels, poetry and biographies. She says that she seeks to "choose and order words that children will celebrate".[5][7]
Dismayed by the depiction of blacks and black communities in popular media, Greenfield has focused her work on realistic but positive portrayals of African-American communities, families and friendships.[1] These relationships are emphasized in Sister (1974) a young girl copes with the death of a parent with the help of other family members, Me and Nessie (1975) about best friends, My Daddy and I (1991) and Big Friend, Little Friend (1991) about mentoring.[5] Her first book, Bubbles (1972), "sets the tone for much of Greenfield's later work: Realistic portrayals of loving African American parents working hard to provide for their families, and the children who face life's challenges with a positive outlook."[1] In She Come Bringing Me that Little Baby Girl (1974), a boy deals with feelings of envy and learns to share his parents' love when his baby sister arrives. The poignant Alesia (1981) concerns the bravery of a girl handicapped by a childhood accident. Night on Neighborhood Street (1991) is a collection of poems depicting everyday life in an urban community. One of her best-known books, Honey I Love, first published in 1978, is a collection of poems for people of all ages concerning the daily lives and loving relationships of children and families. Her semi-autobiographical book Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir (1979) describes her happy childhood in a neighborhood with strong positive relationships.[5] In the introduction to that book, she explains her interest in biography:
People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, about the experiences they had when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world.[8]
In 1971, Greenfield began work for the District of Columbia Black Writers' Workshop, as co-director of adult fiction and then, in 1973, as director of children's literature. That group's goal was to encourage the writing and publishing of African-American literature. She was writer-in-residence at the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1985-86 and taught creative writing in schools under grants from the Commission. She has also lectured and given free workshops on writing of African-American children's
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 7, 2023
Well, part of me kind of wishes that African American poet Eloise Greenfield's expressive and lyrical verses about life in the Bahamas would show more landscape, more depictions of the Bahamas as a group of Caribbean islands. However, after now having slept on and pondered the words encountered in Under the Sunday Tree, I do actually appreciate (and also enjoy) that Greenfield's poems are not in fact all that specifically local in and of themselves, that they colourfully and lovingly show how life in the Bahamas is mostly (and indeed like everywhere) filled with common and everyday events and situations, such as firefighters doing their jobs, a police officer directing traffic, children playing, fishing, dreaming, feeding birds, a woman wearing an outrageous hat, and indeed, that even the poems in Under the Sunday Tree about tourists shopping, sailboat races and floral and faunal descriptions show a delightful universality, demonstrate that for Eloise Greenfield life in the Bahamas is not just Bahamian but also and in fact primarily global (and that Under the Sunday Tree thus shows a wide-reaching and universal poetic lens and view that is nevertheless also still personal and island-bound).
Now with regard to Bahamian folk artist Amos Ferguson's accompanying illustrations for Under the Sunday Tree, yes, I do appreciate Ferguson's sense for colour and that his pictures show a typical and traditional design and composition. However, and I indeed stand by this however, for my own personal aesthetics and visual tastes (and as not really all that much a fan of folk art anyhow), Ferguson's pictures are much too simplistic and as such also too lacking in essential and necessary visual details, and that the absence of depicted emotions, the non existence of most facial features in Ferguson's human figures just does not work all that well for me and sometimes even brings along a tendency to make the illustrations too simplistic and too childish for an adequate and successful mirror for and of Eloise Greenfield's poetry, thus leaving a combination of text and image that is decent enough but where I with Under the Sunday Tree most definitely would prefer that Greenfield's verses were presented either without illustrations or with accompanying photographs. But of course, I also do well realise that Amos Ferguson is considered a famous Bahamian illustrator, but sorry, his folk art is just not visually all that personally appealing to me, so that any potential recommendations do come with the caveat that if one does not enjoy folk art as a style, Amos Ferguson's artwork for Under the Sunday Tree might not be all that much an illustrative treat.
Now with regard to Bahamian folk artist Amos Ferguson's accompanying illustrations for Under the Sunday Tree, yes, I do appreciate Ferguson's sense for colour and that his pictures show a typical and traditional design and composition. However, and I indeed stand by this however, for my own personal aesthetics and visual tastes (and as not really all that much a fan of folk art anyhow), Ferguson's pictures are much too simplistic and as such also too lacking in essential and necessary visual details, and that the absence of depicted emotions, the non existence of most facial features in Ferguson's human figures just does not work all that well for me and sometimes even brings along a tendency to make the illustrations too simplistic and too childish for an adequate and successful mirror for and of Eloise Greenfield's poetry, thus leaving a combination of text and image that is decent enough but where I with Under the Sunday Tree most definitely would prefer that Greenfield's verses were presented either without illustrations or with accompanying photographs. But of course, I also do well realise that Amos Ferguson is considered a famous Bahamian illustrator, but sorry, his folk art is just not visually all that personally appealing to me, so that any potential recommendations do come with the caveat that if one does not enjoy folk art as a style, Amos Ferguson's artwork for Under the Sunday Tree might not be all that much an illustrative treat.
April 8, 2012
A celebration of the Bahamas in multiple voices to include the children, the people in the marketplace. . .the people who call this place their home and share it with the reader in National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Poetry for Children Award winner, Eloise Greenfield. The collection begins by putting the reading into "That Kind of Day":
It's that kind of day
and that kind of season
when the breeze is sweet
and the cool air calls
"Come out!"
It beckons the folks
who come out of doors
and wander about
pretending at first
to look for chores
although they know
they just want to walk
in the breeze and the pale
sunlight
it's that kind of day.
"Traditions" is a celebration of a tradition in the face of curiosity. The narrators here offer a teachable moment in preserving knowledge passed along. I love the Gwendolyn Brooks kind of separation of the word "we" at the line break here. I wish I could hear this read aloud:
Pineapples! pumpkins! chickens! we
carry them on our heads you see
we can glide along forever
and not drop a thing, no never
never even use our hands
never put a finger to it
you know how we learned to do it?
knowledge came from other lands
Africans of long ago
passed it down to us and so
now we pass it on to you
for what is old is also new
pineapples, pumpkins, chickens, we
carry more than the things you see
we also carry history
The collection is sometimes random, presenting a woman on the street in a "sassy" hat, or a serious man in a red suit. The reader gets to look in on a wedding and a gathering of birds. Families walk out of churches slowly and meet in the park under trees. The whole of the collection feels like Greenfield asking us, "What would you like to see next? What else could we show you? Oh. . .look over here."
The paintings by Mr. Amos Ferguson lend a nice feel to this collection, a must for those collecting titles by NCTE Award Winning poets.
It's that kind of day
and that kind of season
when the breeze is sweet
and the cool air calls
"Come out!"
It beckons the folks
who come out of doors
and wander about
pretending at first
to look for chores
although they know
they just want to walk
in the breeze and the pale
sunlight
it's that kind of day.
"Traditions" is a celebration of a tradition in the face of curiosity. The narrators here offer a teachable moment in preserving knowledge passed along. I love the Gwendolyn Brooks kind of separation of the word "we" at the line break here. I wish I could hear this read aloud:
Pineapples! pumpkins! chickens! we
carry them on our heads you see
we can glide along forever
and not drop a thing, no never
never even use our hands
never put a finger to it
you know how we learned to do it?
knowledge came from other lands
Africans of long ago
passed it down to us and so
now we pass it on to you
for what is old is also new
pineapples, pumpkins, chickens, we
carry more than the things you see
we also carry history
The collection is sometimes random, presenting a woman on the street in a "sassy" hat, or a serious man in a red suit. The reader gets to look in on a wedding and a gathering of birds. Families walk out of churches slowly and meet in the park under trees. The whole of the collection feels like Greenfield asking us, "What would you like to see next? What else could we show you? Oh. . .look over here."
The paintings by Mr. Amos Ferguson lend a nice feel to this collection, a must for those collecting titles by NCTE Award Winning poets.
October 30, 2013
Under the Sunday Tree is a whimsically illustrated book of poems by Eloise Greenfield. To Catch a Fish, one of my favorite poems, is found in this book."It takes more than a wish to catch a fish" says the poem. It's a lesson in being patient and waiting for the fish to bite. There is such variety in the themes of the poems. They range from funny to touching, insightful, cheerful, poems about family, friendship and love. All of the illustrations are paintings of life in the Bahamas by Amos Ferguson. This book is great for any age, adults included.
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November 18, 2018Bold Bahamian folk paintings are paired with straightforward poems.
Read my full review on my blog, Caribbean Children's Books.
Read my full review on my blog, Caribbean Children's Books.
March 7, 2014
Collection of 19 poems with matching paintings bring to life the people, tourists and way of life of the Bahamas.
I enjoyed this book as much (or more) for the paintings. they have the brightness that seems to infuse Caribbean art, and are in the style called "primitive" (untrained, bright, fresh). The poems are generally concrete and easy to understand. Some of the poems have rhyme, some do not. Line lengths vary.
Older students/children would be able to see the various things that can be done with poetry.
I enjoyed this book as much (or more) for the paintings. they have the brightness that seems to infuse Caribbean art, and are in the style called "primitive" (untrained, bright, fresh). The poems are generally concrete and easy to understand. Some of the poems have rhyme, some do not. Line lengths vary.
Older students/children would be able to see the various things that can be done with poetry.
September 28, 2011
I myself am not a fan of this book; however, children might be. The illustrations in this book look like children have drawn them, as well as the poems written. My favorite poem is to catch a fish. It teaches that you cant wish to catch a fish you have to try. I feel this is true in life. You can not wish for something to happen. You have to make it happen. This book would also be good to use for black history month to read one poem a day, and it could teach history.
May 1, 2014
I thought this book was very creative. It has a collection of 19 books with matching paintings that bring to life the feel of the Bahamas, tourist and life of the people. The vibrant colors draw you in and creative paintings. The poems are generally concrete and easy to understand. Older students/children would be able to see the various things that can be done with poetry.
October 5, 2012
PB 45.I really enjoyed the poetry in this book. The poetry was beautiful and insightful. I didn't love all of the poems, but the ones I loved were wonderful. I'm going to check this out from the library and photocopy the ones I like for my future classroom.
August 5, 2013
1989 CSKing Illustrator Honor
August 5, 2013
Liked some of the poems. Didn't like any of the illustrations. At. All.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews