Descriptive and Episodic
You don't have to read long before you see Thomas's descriptive style in action—she regularly busts out lush description, scooping readers up into the story by letting them vividly understand the scenarios and scenes she sets. Let's look at the very first paragraph to see what we mean:
On a hill rise to the left of the cotton field, a hound dog howled woefully under a blackjack tree, his scruffy tail sticking out stiffly behind him. A string of chee-chee birds perched on the tree branches, the unborn song dying in their throats. (1.1)
Can't you just see this landscape? From the cotton field, to the hill, to the tree—we are right there, plopped down in the middle from the moment the book opens. We get more than just a clear visual, though; we can also tell that trouble is coming: the dog howls "woefully," the chee-chee birds' song "die[s] in their throats." Through the descriptors Thomas uses, she tells us both where we are and sets the emotional stage for what's about to happen (spoiler alert: it's a tornado).
As for the episodic nature of the writing style, this one's pretty easy: Each chapter reads like an episode. They hop through time, each one (or occasionally a couple together) taking reader's through a specific experience—Abyssinia's birth, Mother Barker teaching Abyssinia how to bake the pound cake, Strong's disappearance, and so on. The chapters move through time, skipping over months and even whole years, unfolding Abyssinia's story episode by episode instead of starting and the beginning and sticking by her side constantly.