Freedom to Read
The Story of Teacher Mary Peake and One Mighty Oak Tree
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- $229.00
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- $229.00
Descripción editorial
Four starred reviews!
“A thoughtful double portrait that reaches forward and back.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
From Newbery Honor author Lesa Cline-Ransome and ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award recipient James Ransome, this “important picture book biography” (School Library Journal, starred review) tells the story of Mary Peake, a courageous teacher who started a secret school for Black children.
So many found sanctuary in Mary’s secret schoolhouse. They found freedom in letters. In Mary’s teaching, they found a refuge.
Mary Peake was born free in 1823 in Norfolk, Virginia, and from a young age she hungered for learning. Mary attended a colored school in her youth, but when Virginia lawmakers outlawed education for colored students, both enslaved and free, the schools had to close their doors. Mary wanted nothing more than to share the gift of education, so she opened up her home as a secret school, risking punishment in order to teach.
When the Civil War broke out, Mary and her community found refuge in a Union camp, and Mary set up a new schoolhouse under the branches of a proud oak tree. Shoulder to shoulder, students of all ages gathered to hear Mary teach.
Mary’s crusade for education became a model for one of the first historically black colleges, Hampton University. Her story—part of “an important and often untold aspect of American history” (The Horn Book Magazine, starred review)—is a celebration of one woman’s sacrifices for the freedom to read
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A child and a tree mature to reveal an interconnected legacy in married collaborators Cline-Ransome and Ransome's nuanced biography of teacher Mary Peake (1823–1862). As "the rich soil of Hampton, Virginia," nurtures an acorn sprouting into an oak tree, Peake is born to a "free colored mother" in the same state, and later rises to the top of her class at school. After an 1831 rebellion by enslaved men prompts Virginia lawmakers to outlaw education "for colored,/ enslaved and free," young Peake uses her family's parlor to teach illegally. When war breaks out, Hampton's Fort Monroe becomes a refuge for people escaping their enslavers, and Peake is named as educator for the camp's newly established school, where she soon begins teaching under the oak tree, which later becomes the site of a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and shares land with HBCU Hampton University. As delicately detailed watercolor and pencil illustrations employ an expressive color palette of blues, golds, and greens, extended free-verse text twines the spreads together with repeated terms, while brief interstitials touch on the oak's life. Spotlighting a living historical landmark and a pioneering teacher, it's a thoughtful double portrait that reaches forward and back. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note concludes. Ages 4–8.
