From Slave Ship to Freedom Road

by Julius Lester, Rod Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

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 will 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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140566697
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	12/01/1999
Series:	Pavilion Series
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	651,000
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.16(d)
Lexile:	AD790L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Julius Lester has published many books of fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and poetry. Among the awards these books have received are the Newbery Honor Medal, American Library Association Notable Book, National Jewish Book Award Finalist, The New York Times Outstanding Book, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Caldecott Honor Book, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a National Book Award Finalist. His books have been translated into eight languages.

Editorial Reviews

Twenty-one of Brown's 36 paintings that were originally included in an exhibit entitled "From Slavery to Freedom" are showcased here and provide the inspiration for Lester's (To Be a Slave) strong and searing text. In double-page spreads with usually one, sometimes two paintings to each, the book traces the African American slave experience through images beginning with the Middle Passage and concluding with images of post-Civil War emancipation. Lester's words are most effective when they draw readers into the paintings themselves, as in one spread including Brown's Sheol, in which the author imagines the voices of three captives shackled together in the foreboding hold of a slave ship. In giving a voice to these three captives, Lester demands that readers give identity to the faceless human cargo: endless rows of heads and shoulders that alternate with rows of endless feet. He then breaks from the narrative to address the raw emotions of readers: "You have memories of those Africans too. Even if you're white. Especially if you're white." Alongside other paintings, the author tells stories of his own heritage ("My slave ancestors were house servants") and also includes three separate "Imagination Exercises" (one for whites, one for blacks and one for both whites and blacks: "What if your peers... deemed you honorable and good for beating someone?"). While the author raises questions that will likely provoke much impassioned discussion, these jarring shifts in narrative perspective interrupt any fluid reading of the book as the story of a journey. Brown's paintings provide the cohesive narrative line and have a stunning power of their own, but the confrontational tone of the text may usurp readers' attention. In the end, some readers may be left with questions about the artist and his inspiration (an artist's note is, unfortunately, absent), and most will likely require an adult standing by to help them grapple with the provocative issues raised here. Ages 10-up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5 UpBrown's 22 brilliant and dramatic paintings of slaves and slavery in America are the attention-riveting basis for this picture-book history. Lester's carefully crafted words are the threads that weave about the pictures, inviting readers, whether black or white, to "invest soul" and to reach "an understanding in the heart" of what Africans endured over the 250 years from the first slave ships to Emancipation. The illustrations, bright with color contrasts and skillfully composed, were previously shown in gallery exhibits. They are effectively displayed against glossy white pages. The portraits of men and women show statuesque, cleanly sculptured bodies, strong in their attitudes, whether laboring, filled with silent anger, or gathered in prayer. Many of the scenes so artfully portrayed are those depicting suffering, from the dreaded Middle Passage to field labor, the slave market, attempts to escape, and the cost in whippings and lynchings. Finally, in the last paintings, the Civil War and the joyful road to freedom mark the end of this darkest period in American history. Lester's words guide readers into the pictures, offering background facts, creating dialogue, or constructing the thoughts of the pictured persons. At intervals, the text breaks to suggest an "Imagination Exercise," or to question readers on how they would act or feel. This is a powerful book, and it is an important one. It asks African Americans to understand the experience and honor the strength of the ancestors who survived these ordeals. It asks whites to understand the price exacted by past domination and cruelty on the fabric of society today.Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

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