Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 1998)

Starred Review In this lyrical tribute to the pioneer spirit, here personified by a black woman, Thomas describes what it was like to arrive in untamed territory and try to turn it into a home. I have heard of a land / Where the cottonwood trees are innocent / Where the coyote's call is a lullaby at night / and where the land runs on forever / and a woman can plant her crop and walk all day and never come to the end of it. Thomas' mastery of language evokes both the feelings as well as the practicalities that came with the hard journey west. This is a place where a woman can sleep in a sod hut, dreaming of the three-room log cabin she will someday build. Where she plants her crops, and all that she eats comes from her labor. The strength and tenderness of Thomas' text are matched by Cooper's always evocative artwork. The pictures are at their best when they are showing how important and how small one person can seem in the vastness of the prairie. Thomas and Cooper both have their roots in Oklahoma, where this book is set. Thomas' wonderful author's note tells the story of her great-grandparents, who ran for land in the Oklahoma Territory, and illuminates the experience of African Americans surviving and thriving in a place where freedom was more than a word. (Reviewed February 15, 1998)

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

In lyrical prose that at times obscures its own meaning, Thomas tells the story of a strong African-American woman who, like other former slaves, joined in the 1889 and 1893 land runs to create a life for herself in Oklahoma. Cooper's earth-toned paintings capture the vastness of the land, the immensity of the task, and the fortitude of the woman. An author's note provides more details about the subject.

Kirkus Reviews

Land was a symbol of freedom to African-Americans, many of them former slaves, who settled the Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800s. The territories they staked out became their homes and then communities where their children could be raised as free. Using an omniscient first-person narration and one woman as the focus of the experience she delineates, Thomas portrays how something as plain as the vast prairie, as simple as a sod hut, could look beautiful to these new settlers. In lyrical language, she also makes clear the hardships of settling the land and surviving cold winters. She recreates in fiction the histories of women, unrecorded except in diaries and anecdotes passed down through generations of her family; a note informs readers of where the facts and writer's license diverge. Cooper's dusty drawings portray both the isolation of the settlers' new life on the prairie, and the strong human bonds that helped them endure; his use of color gives the Oklahoma the look of paradise without sentimentalizing the work such a place entails. (Picture book. 7-11)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 4--All who gave their hearts to Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea (HarperCollins, 1993) will have to clear a spot for I Have Heard of a Land. Thomas and Cooper shine again in this powerful tribute to the African-American pioneers who participated in the Oklahoma land runs of 1889 and 1893. This gem reveals some hidden facets as it singles out a lone woman who hears of a place where she has only to "Lift up her feet running for the land/As though running for her life/And in the running claim it," a place where "Her possibilities reach as far/As her eyes can see/And as far as our imaginations can carry us." Thomas's evocative poem is exalted by Cooper's warm, joyous, and majestic paintings of people living out their dreams. The layout and design of the book capture the expanse of the prairie with full double-page spreads and carefully placed text. In an author's note, Thomas provides some historical and personal context. Both she and Cooper demonstrate a love for the raw beauty of the land. Though good readers can enjoy the book alone, this lyrical poem sings when read aloud.--Jody McCoy, Lakehill Preparatory School, Dallas, TX