Across the Fruited Plain

This collection of linked short stories presents the lives of migrant farm families and their children as they travel for seasonal work on crops such as cranberries, onions, oysters and hopyards. Vignettes portray daily labor, cramped travel and housing, interrupted schooling and limited medical care, alongside small domestic moments in families and community centers. Foreword and stories describe church-run centers and relief efforts that provide food, nursing, schooling and play, and encourage readers' practical aid. The tone is observational and empathetic, aiming to make young readers aware of where food and clothing come from and to suggest communal responses to the migrants' hardships.