Eloise Greenfield - 1929
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I. Biography When I was a little boy, one of the first books my mother read to me was Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield. Eloise
Greenfield was born in 1929, in the town of Parmele, North Carolina. Parmele is a small town of only about three hundred people. The town has approximately 129
families. Shortly after she was born, her parents moved to Washington D.C. She grew up in a housing project called Langston Terrace. There was a library very close to her home. Greenfield spent a lot of time there.
Greenfield says that Langston Terrace was a good place to grow up. Many good neighbors, family, and friends looked out for each other. The 1930's were hard times for the
entire country. Almost everyone, Black and White, was poor. These years were known as the Depression and food and money were hard to find. These were also hard years for
Blacks because of how racist society was at that time. There were many places that Black people could not go or even dream of going. Eloise Greenfield did not become a writer until she was around 40 years old. She says that
she doesn't even know why she became a writer, but just enjoyed writing words down. She just kept practicing until she got it right. In 1972, she was published for the first time. Eloise
Greenfield has won many awards, including the first Carter Woodson Award, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, as well as the Coretta Scott King Award. II. Literary Discussion
If there is one common thread throughout the work of Eloise Greenfield's books, it is the love and caring of African American family life. Many of her books talk about the
relationship that different family members have with each other, as well as their relationship with the outside world. One of the books I liked the most was Grandpa's Face. It is about a
little girl who one day sees her grandpa making a mean face while rehearsing for a play. It scares her so much that she decides to be frightened of her grandfather all the time. It
seems that something like that could really happen. She simply did not understand that it was just make-believe. It took her awhile to realize that he was the same old man that she
loved. Greenfield can take easy subjects like that and make a story out of them. She also always uses wonderful illustrators to make the books pleasant for non-readers. One of my favorite quotations is: I love… III. Parmele Eloise Greenfield was born in the small town of Parmele, North Carolina. Parmele is located
just east of Tarboro. The population of the town is just about 300 people. There are over 100 families. It is a close knit town. Greenfield left there early, but would return each
summer to stay with her relatives until she was 12 years old. The weather was very hot in the summer and mildly cold in the winter. The most exciting thing about Parmele was probably the train going through town.
IV. Literary Works Bubbles (1972) This essay was submitted by a student of Leslie Andres, a teacher at Lake Norman Charter School in Huntersville, North Carolina.
I love a lot of things
a whole lot of things
like…"
from Honey, I Love
Rosa Parks (1973)
Sister (1974)
She Came Bringing Me That Baby Girl (1974)
Paul Robeson (1975)
Me and Neesie (1975)
First Pink Light (1976)
Mary McLeod Bethune (1977)
Talk About A Family (1978)
I Can Do It By Myself (1978)
Childtimes: A Three Generation Memoir (1979)
Darlene (1980)
Daydreamers (1981)
Alesia (1981)
Honey, I Love and Other Poems (1986)
Grandpa's Face (1988)
Under the Sunday Tree (1988)
.Africa Dreams (1989)
I Make Music (1991)
Nathaniel Talking (1993)
Night on Neighborhood St. (1996)
Water Water (1999)
For the Love of the Game: MJ and Me (1999)
Grandma's Joy (1999)