From Publishers Weekly -
“Woodson lays out her resonant story like a poem, its central metaphor a fence that divides blacks from whites. Lewis’s evocative watercolors lay bare the personalities and emotions of her two young heroines, one African-American and one white. As the girls, both instructed by their mothers not to climb over the fence, watch each other from a distance, their body language and facial expressions provide clues to their ambivalence about their mothers' directives...By season's end

…"We sat up on the fence, all of us in a long line." Lewis depicts bygone days with the girls in dresses and white sneakers and socks: "Someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," says Annie, and Clover agrees.

Pictures and words make strong partners here, convincingly communicating a timeless lesson.”