Cotton in My Sack (Book Review)

Title: Cotton in My Sack
Author/Illustrator: Lois Lenski
Publication: Dell Yearling paperback, originally published 1949
Genre: Children’s fiction

Plot: Joanda, age 10, is part of an Arkansas sharecropper family on the Cotton belt. Children help their parents pick cotton and school only takes place in the off season. It is a hard life but it is all the Hutley family knows and they have fun together despite their hard work and financial worries. The sharecropper life is very bleak for Joanda’s parents: they don’t see any escape and do not know how to save so are constantly at the mercy of unexpected disasters such as illness or can’t pay for daily living expenses due to their own feckless spending. Yet the Hutley parents are good people, well-liked by their peers, respected for their work ethic, and compassionate toward others. The story is told from Joanda’s perspective as she becomes more perceptive and begins to glimpse how the work done by her father and others fits into an economic system its participants are unaware of.

Ricky Hutley gets hit by a tractor - no health insurance!

Audience: Lenski wrote this story at the request of Arkansas children who had admired her Newbery Medal winner, Strawberry Girl. I don’t remember reading it as a child, although if it was in my library I probably did, but I see so much more in the story as an adult reader: the feckless yet well-intentioned father, the teacher trying to save the Hutley family’s pride yet provide a nourishing hot lunch, the kind uncle instilling savings lessons in the family that likes to spend every penny it earns on junk.

My Impressions: As an adult I was interested in Lois primarily in her role as illustrator of the first four Betsy-Tacy books but enjoyed a recent biography, Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. This described Lenski’s American Regional series, a group of 17 books, of which Cotton in My Sack is one. Lenski began writing these books in the 40s, setting them in different parts of the United States to show how real children lived – initially, regions she observed while driving to Florida but later she responded to specific requests as she did here, visiting Arkansas twice and picking cotton herself. I enjoyed the book as a slice of Americana and found the description of rural farming and sharecropping fascinating but sad. Joanda herself is a bright girl who loves words and books. Her home has newspapers pasted on the wall instead of plaster that she reads:

Joanda loved to read. There were no books or magazines in the house, only the newspapers on the wall [instead of plaster]. The words – strange words she did not know the meaning of – had a fascination for her. She used to ask Daddy to explain what they meant. But he couldn’t – he only went to third grade, he said.

Later a kind teacher lends Joanda a pioneer story she brings home to read aloud with her father:

The book told of hard work and courage and struggle. It had happiness, meanness and sorrow in it. At the sad parts they all cried. Daddy and Joanda read each evening after school until the end was reached.
“It sounds like real to me,” said Daddy. “I feel like I know them folks somehow.”
“That’s ‘cause they’re just like us. They had the same troubles in them days too,” said Mama. “We’re not the only ones had it hard.”

This was Lenski's reason for writing such books - to show these children there were families like theirs with similar challenges.  Joanda’s teacher would have been gratified to know how much the Hutleys liked the book, but unfortunately Joanda drops the book in a mud puddle and is too terrified to return to school. Of course, I thought about the lost library book in All-of-a-kind Family and the kind librarian who works out a payment plan with Sarah to save the family’s pride. In fact, Joanda could have paid for the book from her cotton picking money but the children are allowed to squander their earnings on Saturdays.

Joanda is surprised to learn the landowner's wife has financial worries too

Along with the spoiled toddler, this is the most upsetting part of the book – watching the Hutleys carelessly spend their money at the Goodwill store every week while the father goes off to get drunk. Fortunately, Mrs. Hutley’s uncle is as worried as I am about the family’s future and comes up with a scheme to help them focus on savings. Given that my job is all about asset building for low-income residents, I felt that Uncle Shine and I were working together on this feckless family!

Source: I recently picked up a copy of this book for my friend Nicole but naturally had to read it before giving it to her. While Lenski’s books are not fun the way the Betsy-Tacy books are, I enjoyed this and recommend it.

Images copyright to the publisher