Reviewed by Kirkus Reviews Review Source: Kirkus Reviews Book Author: A passion for education and freedom brings subversive ingenuity to life in 1847 St. Louis. Hopkinson reveals Rev. John Barry Meachum’s true history through the stories he tells the children of being born a slave (in 1789 in Virginia) and working in the saltpeter mines […]
Unbound: A Novel in Verse
Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: When Grace, the enslaved protagonist of this beautiful novel-length poem, turns 9, she is sent to live and work in the big house, forcing a heart-wrenching separation from her family. Then Grace hears that her mother and younger brothers will be placed on the auction […]
Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
Reviewed by Crystal Brunelle Review Source: Rich in Color Book Author: Kindred is not generally tagged as young adult, but it will likely be a cross-over title and it was one I wanted to read for our focus on women in graphic novels this month. Dana, the main character, has just turned twenty-six when the main […]
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life
Reviewed by Megan Schliesman Review Source: Reading While White Book Author: Peggy, John, Charlotte and child, Stephen, Mulvina, Jane, Athelia, Qush, Bacus, Betty. It is with little more than these names that this book began. Ashley Bryan explains in his author’s note that he acquired a collection of slave-related documents and found among them an 1828 […]
Sylvia & Aki
Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Book Author: This historical novel for middle school readers is based on the true stories of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu Nakauchi, who were 3rd graders during World War II. When Aki’s family is forced to leave their home in Westminster, Calif., for a Japanese American internment camp in Arizona, the Mendez […]