A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 (Dear America Series)

by Patricia C. McKissack

Overview

Coretta Scott King Award winner and Newbery Honor author Patricia McKissack's inspiring A PICTURE OF FREEDOM is now back in print with a gorgeous new cover!

It's 1859 and Clotee, a twelve-year-old slave, has the most wonderful, terrible secret. She knows that if she shares it with the wrong person, she will face unimaginable consequences. What is her secret? While doing her job of fanning her master's son during his daily lessons, Clotee has taught herself to read and write. However, she soon learns that the tutor, Ely Harms, has a secret of his own.In a time when literacy is one of the most valuable skills to have, Clotee is determined to use her secret to save herself, and her family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545242530
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Series:	Dear America Series
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	215,844
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Patricia and Frederick McKissack are the authors of numerous award-winning books, including REBELS AGAINST SLAVERY: AMERICAN SLAVES REVOLT and BLACK HANDS, WHITE SAILS: THE STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WHALERS, both Coretta Scott King Honor Books, and SOJOURNER TRUTH: AIN'T I A WOMAN?, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award. Patricia and Frederick McKissack live in St. Louis, Missouri. John McKissack resides in Memphis, Tennessee.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for A Picture of Freedom

"Clotee is such a vibrant, fully rounded character... [A]n inspiring look at a young girl coming of age in terrible circumstances who manages to live life to the fullest." -School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 4-6Clotee is an orphan living on the plantation of "Mas' Henley" and "Miz Lilly." Her owners have put her to work fanning Miz Lilly and her young son William during tutoring sessions. William may not be keen to learn, but Clotee is. She has learned to read while looking over the boy's shoulder and eventually she teaches herself how to write. She practices her newfound skills by writing in a makeshift, secret diary, which is found by William's new tutor. Luckily, he turns out to be an abolitionist. Through his work, Clotee helps some of her friends escape to the North, but she herself chooses to stay behind on the plantation as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Clotee is such a vibrant, fully rounded character that it is almost painful to think of her left on the plantation while her friends and fellow slaves go to freedom. McKissack brings Clotee alive through touching and sobering details of slave life, told in such a matter-of-fact way that their often brutal nature is made abundantly clear. However, this is in no way a depressing book. In fact, it is an inspiring look at a young girl coming of age in terrible circumstances who manages to live life to the fullest.Melissa Hudak, Northern Illinois Medical Center, McHenry, IL

School Library Journal