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MY NAME IS HENRY BIBB

Name: MY NAME IS HENRY BIBB
Author: Afua Cooper
ISBN: 978-1-55337-813-6

A STORY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM

by Afua Cooper ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009

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Partnered titles explore the worlds of enslaved African-Americans from a fictionalized first-person perspective. The son of a White man who neither owned his mixed-race mother Milly nor acknowledged him, Henry is given to the master’s infant granddaughter. Growing up, Henry endures many trials and tribulations on Harriet’s father’s rural Kentucky plantation, yet conditions there are better than being hired out. When he is hired by a judge in Louisville, Henry learns about “walking on water”—escape across the Ohio River into freedom. Inspired by the birth of his daughter, Henry finally escapes. Although the epilogue quickly summarizes his later work as an abolitionist, Henry’s narrative suffers from its abrupt end. The companion, My Name Is Phillis Wheatley (ISBN: 978-1-55337-812-9), is much better crafted, starting with her childhood in West Africa. An excellent and age-appropriate account of the Middle Passage leads to Phillis’s arrival in Boston. After being sold into slavery, Phillis is educated, begins to write poetry and achieves international fame. Unlike Henry’s story, which only explores his life as a slave, Phillis’s narrative is truly a story of slavery and freedom. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-55337-813-6

Page Count: 160

Publisher: KCP Fiction/Kids Can

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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REFUGEE

by Alan Gratz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2017

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.

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Awards & Accolades

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Our Verdict

GET IT

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Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2017

New York Times Bestseller

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner

In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.

Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)