New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (2004) dj. Hardcover - The author's first children's book, one based on her own experiences and that of her family, set in 1964 in Alabama, where Jessie's African American family prepares to leave the South for better jobs and schools. Illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue whose paintings "beautifully capture the family scenes in the car and the endless, shifting landscape from the window in soft-edged, thickly brushed strokes that heighten the emotions in Jesse's words - the nostalgia, the worry, and the bittersweet hope about a promising new place." Oblong format. Unpaginated. Map endpapers. ISBN: 0-374326819.