When the Horses Ride By: Children in the Times of War

Through these graceful and eloquent poems, written from the child's perspective, readers will experience this resilience, this optimism, and understand that it is possible to get through difficult and unsettling times while holding onto one's hopes and dreams for a better, more peaceful future. 

WE ARE THE HELPERS

We tend the farm,

help to make the food grow,

Somewhere there is fighting,

but we are here, helping the sun

and the rain and the rich earth

bring forth the plants of life.

Wars have occurred throughout history, in all parts of the world, and they continue today. In spite of the hardship and suffering of wartime, children often find ways to see beauty and hope - in the natural world, in the love of family and friends, and in the ordinary activities of childhood. Through these graceful and eloquent poems, written from the child's perspective, readers will experience this resilience, this optimism, and understand that it is possible to get through difficult and unsettling times while holding onto one's hopes and dreams for a better, more peaceful future.

Eloise Greenfield is a celebrated poet and the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and biography for children, including the Coretta Scott King Award winner Africa Dream, The Coretta Scott King Award Honor books Mary McLeod Bethune and Childtimes: A Three Generation Memoir, co-written with her mother. Greenfield is the recipient of the Hope S. Dean Award from the Foundation for Children's Literature, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. She has received the Hurston/Wright Foundation's North Star Award for Lifetime Achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Moonstone Celebration of Black Writing, and has an Honorary Doctor of Education Degree from Wheelock College in Boston. Greenfield has also been inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Jan Gilchrist was a fine artist and art educator for nearly twenty years before she entered the children's book field in 1988, with Children of Long Ago. Since then, she has illustrated more than fifty books for children, including many by Eloise Greenfield. Their book, Nathaniel Talking, won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and an Author Honor. Gilchrist was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in 2000 and the Society of Illustrators in 2001. A native of Chicago, she lives in Olympia Fields, Illinois. Visit her online at Jan Spivey Gilchirst.