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From Slave Ship to Freedom Road

Amazon.com Price:  $2.95 (as of 09/05/2019 01:38 PST- Details)

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Description

Rod Brown and Julius Lester bring history to life in this profoundly moving exploration of the slave experience. From the Middle Passage to the auction block, from the whipping post to the fight for freedom, this book presents not just historical facts, but the raw emotions of the people who lived them. Inspired by Rod Brown’s vivid paintings, Julius Lester has written a text that places each of us squarely inside the skin of both slave and slaveowner. It’s going to capture the heart of every reader, black or white, young or old.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An NCSS-CBC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
A Booklist Editors’ Choice Book
Slavery is a difficult concept to address with children, especially because many adults would prefer to disregard that period of American history. In From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, award-winning writer Julius Lester takes older children (and adults) on an intense, personal journey through the slave experience. As he gently explains the factual horrors of slave-ship conditions, auction blocks, plantation life, and the risks associated with escape, Lester consistently prods young readers with probing questions: “How would I feel if that happened to me?” “Would you risk going to jail to help someone you didn’t know?” “You are free, but are you?” Lester also asks us to consider the voices and feelings of the African Americans in the illustrations–another brilliant call for active participation.

Rod Brown’s paintings are achingly vivid, such a lot in order that a couple of may be too powerful for younger children. Certain depictions are difficult even for adults to bear: a lynched man with the bloody blows of a whip marking his back; slaves stacked seven-high in the hold of a ship, packed onto shelves with less room than the drawers of a morgue; and black bodies bobbing in the ocean. These are horrible images, but nonetheless historically accurate and important to understand that. Brown took seven years to create these startling images, and his careful attention is reflected in the paintings’ power and emotion. Children may be to start with startled by From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, but they’re going to also be engaged and enlightened. (Ages 10 to 13)

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