Steamboat School

by Deborah Hopkinson, Ron Husband (Illustrator)

Overview

When a Missouri law shuts down a school for Black students, one boy must find a path to bravery in this award-winning picture book, based on a true story of resilience.
 
James wasn’t excited to go to school—everything outside was loud and exciting, but the classroom was dark and dreary. Luckily, his teacher Reverend John Meacham wasn’t so bad. He shared stories about being enslaved, buying his freedom, and building a life.
 
“We make our own light here,” he said.
 
Until the day the school was shut down by a law forbidding African American education in Missouri. What could James do? Reverend John Berry Meachum didn’t give up though. With steamboats swaying on the Mississippi River, and a spirit of determination, the Reverend found a loophole—what if the school wasn’t in Missouri?

Based on true events, Ron Husband's uplifting illustrations bring to life Deborah Hopkinson's tale of a resourceful, determined teacher; his bright, inquisitive students; and their refusal to accept discrimination based on the color of their skin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423121961
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	624,431
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Deborah Hopkinson is the author of more than seventy books for young readers including picture books, short fiction, and nonfiction. She has won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for picture book text twice, and in 2013 received both a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction honor and a Robert F. Sibert honor for Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah invites you to visit her online at deborahhopkinson.com.

Ron Husband, the first African American animator at Walt Disney Studios, worked on films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame during his thirty-eight years at the company. His illustrations have also been featured in a number of children's publications. Ron lives in California, with his wife. They have three children and three beautiful granddaughters.

Editorial Reviews

With art evoking retro wood blocks crossed with modern cartoons, James's tale is both sobering and uplifting.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

★ 03/28/2016
Hopkinson (Courage & Defiance) offers a graceful fictional recounting of a St. Louis minister’s courageous and clever response to a 1847 Missouri law that prohibited the education of African-Americans. A former slave who worked tirelessly to buy his freedom (as well as that of his parents, wife, and children), John Berry Meachum ran a secret school for black children in his church basement. In this reimagining, new student James complains about the darkness of the school, which is illuminated only by a candle. “We make our own light here,” replies Meachum. After the sheriff closes the school, Meachum builds a steamboat that his students help scrub and paint, then opens a new—and legal—school on the vessel, moored midriver on federal property. The determination of Reverend John and the children radiates from longtime Disney animator Husband’s elegant illustrations, finely crosshatched in ink and colored in muted blues, reds, and browns. Gentle yet forceful, it’s an affecting tribute to an unsung crusader for equal rights and education. Closing notes provide details about Meachum’s life and Hopkinson’s research. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"A heartrending book that will inspire readers of all ages to better understand the history of discrimination."—SLJ

"Gentle yet forceful, it’s an affecting tribute to an unsung crusader for equal rights and education."—Publishers Weekly

"An unforgettable story that needs to be known."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

06/01/2016
Gr 1–4—James, his sister, and his mother, a laundress, are free blacks living in Missouri in the 1840s, but being free does not give them equal rights. James and his sister attend school in the basement of a church. The secretive space is lit only by candles, but Reverend John, the teacher, tells James, "We make our own light here." A state law passed in 1847, however, makes it illegal to have any kind of school for "negroes or mulattoes," slave or free. Historical fiction based on the life of John Berry Meachum, the story describes how Reverend John got around the law by building a steamboat and holding classes on the Mississippi River, which was considered federal property. Husband, the first African American animator at Disney Studios, creates expressive illustrations that have the look and feel of the time period. Rendered mostly in brown and black tones, his detailed, cross-hatching style has the appearance of pen and ink. An author's note shares more of Meachum's life, describing how he worked in a mine to make enough money to buy freedom for himself and his father. Walking from Kentucky to Missouri, Meachum then worked as a carpenter and cooper in order to purchase his wife's and children's freedom. VERDICT Full of action and accomplishment, the story of James and Reverend John will impress and inspire readers. A powerful, well-written story to share with a class or with proficient readers.—Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

School Library Journal

★ 2016-03-30
A passion for education and freedom brings subversive ingenuity to life in 1847 St. Louis.James' mother scrubs his face clean for his first day of "Tallow Candle School" in the basement of Rev. John's church. Though initially resistant, once James realizes that Rev. John teaches children to read, he goes eagerly. "We make our own light here," the preacher tells him. Hopkinson reveals John Barry Meachum's true history through the stories he tells the children of being born a slave (in 1789 in Virginia) and working in the saltpeter mines to purchase his own freedom and that of both parents, then walking hundreds of miles to liberate his wife. (The backmatter also reveals that Meachum bought and freed several other slaves.) When the police burst into the school to inform Rev. John that Missouri has passed a law forbidding blacks, slave or free, to read, he stops teaching temporarily. With James' help, he uses his carpentry skills to build a steamboat on the Mississippi—federal property—in which his students can learn freely. This fascinating story, illustrated in pen and ink with a color palette of browns and blacks with occasional pops of blue and red, draws readers into the historical era effectively and emphasizes what a privilege literacy was for African-Americans in the 19th century.An unforgettable story that needs to be known. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews