Ruth Ellen's odyssey on the New York Bound Silver Meteor is the start of a new life up North that she can't begin to imagine in this gorgeously illustrated picture book.
Lesa Cline-Ransome has written many books for children, including
Before She Was Harriet, which received five starred reviews, a
Coretta Scott King Honor, and a Christopher Award, and her debut
middle grade novel Finding Langston, which received a Coretta Scott
King Honor and five starred reviews. She lives in upstate New York
with her husband and collaborator, illustrator James E.
Ransome.
James E. Ransome's numerous accolades include a Coretta Scott King
Medal, three Coretta Scott King Honors, and an NAACP Image Award.
He lives in upstate New York with his wife and collaborator, writer
Lesa Cline-Ransome.
★ "Warm portraiture and vivid writing by married collaborators
Cline-Ransome and Ransome (Before She Was Harriet) mark this story
of a family’s journey north during the Great Migration. . . . The
journey is seen through the eyes of richly developed characters
drawn with care and sympathy."—Publishers Weekly, Starred
Review
★ "Ransome's watercolor-and-collage illustrations effectively
capture both the historical setting and the trepidation of a family
who though not enslaved, nevertheless must escape as if they were.
Cotton bolls throughout the images accentuate cotton's economic
dominance in the sharecropping system. A beautiful portrayal of a
historic and arduous family journey northward."—Kirkus Reviews,
Starred Review
★ "Ransome’s beautiful illustrations feature detailed and
expressive faces and layers of bright patterned paper that add
colorful accents to the muted palette. . . . An author’s note gives
readers historical context, placing the story in the era of the
Great Migration, inspired by just one story of the many who were,
'running from and running to at the same time.'"—School Library
Journal, Starred Review
★ "Cline-Ransome’s carefully cadenced ragged-right prose, suitable
for reading aloud or reading alone, offers sharply observed details
. . . . James Ransome’s line, watercolor, and collage scenes move
fluidly from epic landscape scenes, often dotted with the
deceptively beautiful cotton, to eloquent facial portraiture; the
movement of the gleaming train through the landscapes is paralleled
occasionally by glimpses of a young Frederick Douglass heading
North on foot. There’s something about the Great Migration that
brings out talent"—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books,
Starred Review
"A tour de force from a writer/illustrator duo that is a national
treasure."— The Historical Novel Society
"Through handsome collage, pencil and watercolor illustrations and
lyrical free verse, the family's hopeful journey to find better
jobs, homes and rights shows readers a major moment in the large
scope of African American history. . . . Young readers will likely
be drawn in by the author's riff on a familiar phrase in the title,
as well as the spare but poetic language in which Ruthie narrates
her long day's journey"—Shelf Awareness
"Ruth Ellen is reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
on the train, and Cline-Ransome generalizes the details of
Douglass’s own escape to emphasize the similarities in the two
situations . . . Ransome does an admirable job of setting mood as
well as establishing time and place."—The Horn Book
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