Deborah Hopkinson has written many acclaimed picture books,
including A Letter to My Teacher; Sky Boys: How They
Built the Empire State Building, a Boston Globe–Horn Book
Honor Book; and Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin
Tale, an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book. She lives in Oregon
with her family. Visit her at deborahhopkinson.com.
James Ransome is the illustrator of many award-winning
titles for children, including The Creation by James
Weldon Johnson, which won a Coretta Scott King Award for
illustration, and Let My People Go: Bible Stories Told by a Freeman
of Color by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, winner of an
NAACP Image Award. His other titles include This Is the Rope:
A Story from the Great Migration by National Book Award winner
Jacqueline Woodson, Young Pelé: Soccer's First Star by Lesa
Cline-Ransome, and Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State
Building by Deborah Hopkinson. He lives in New York. Visit him at
jamesransome.com.
"A particularly effective way to introduce the subject to younger
children, adding a trenchant immediacy to their understanding of a
difficult but important chapter in the country's past."--(starred)
Horn Book.
"This first-rate book is a triumph of the heart."--(starred)
Publishers Weekly.
"A particularly effective way to introduce the subject to younger
children, adding a trenchant immediacy to their understanding of a
difficult but important chapter in the country's past."--(starred)
Horn Book.
"This first-rate book is a triumph of the heart."--(starred)
Publishers Weekly.
A compelling story about an African American girl's escape from slavery on a Southern plantation brings power and substance to this noteworthy picture book. When the rigors of cotton-field labor overwhelm Clara, a kindly woman she calls Aunt Rachel trains the girl to be a seamstress in the main house. Like most slaves, Clara longs for freedom and, in her case, yearns to be reunited with her mother. Becoming proficient in her sewing, she begins in her off hours to put together a map-quilt, stitching in any information she can glean from overheard conversations about an escape route to Canada. Clara is indeed reunited with her mother (``her eyes just like I remembered, her arms strong around me'') in a chronicle made all the more touching for being rooted in fact. (The concluding flashback, a denouement explaining how the quilt may help others only slightly interrupts the fluid narrative line.) Ransome's ( Aunt Flossie's Hats . . . And Crab Cakes Later ) paintings here are among his finest: more lifelike and accessible than in some earlier books, the full-page, borderless oils exude an extraordinary warmth and humanity that lend credibility to the story. Himself a descendent of plantation slaves, the artist brings both dignity and realism to his work. This first-rate book is a triumph of the heart. Ages 5-10. (Feb.)
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