Voices from the Underground Railroad
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- USD 5.99
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- USD 5.99
Publisher Description
From the creators of Voices from the Oregon Trail and Colonial Voices, an unflinching story of two young runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad, told in their voices and those who helped and hindered them
It's the 1850s and enslaved siblings Jeb and Mattie are about the make a break for freedom. The pair travel north from Maryland to New Bedford, Massachusetts along the Underground Railroad. Each spread tells about a step of their journey through a poem in the first person perspective. The main and repeating voices are Jeb and Mattie, but we also hear from the stationmasters and conductors, those who offer them haven, as well as those who want to capture them.
Like its predecessors in the Voices series, this richly researched and beautifully illustrated picture book brings a difficult chapter of American history to life for young readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this companion to Colonial Voices and Voices from the Oregon Trail, Jeb and Mattie, two enslaved siblings in 1861 Maryland, are determined not to be "sold South" as their mother was. "Ain't gonna happen," says Ben. "Not to me. Not to Mattie./ Not gonna be sold like a pig or a plow./ We gotta run." Helped by members of the Underground Railroad and pursued by bounty hunters emboldened by the Fugitive Slave Act, they travel up the Eastern seaboard to New Bedford, Mass., a city famous for its resistance to slavery. Winters chronicles their journey in a series of monologues from every player in the story, taking pains to reflect the latest scholarship on the Underground Railroad (which is further explained in the thoughtful afterword). Jeb and Mattie's courage is front and center, and the movement is portrayed as encompassing both white helpers and free black people. The framing choices in Day's warm, textured paintings sometimes blunt the emotional urgency in Jeb and Mattie's flight, but readers will come away with a better understanding of the horror and hope that drove people to risk everything for freedom. Ages 7 9.
