A worthy, engaging story of an abolitionist family.
Schoonmaker’s historical middle-grade novel portrays a boy’s experiences as part of a family involved with the Underground Railroad.
It’s 1855, and young Sid Johnson, who lives in Illinois, is awakened by a gunshot. When he wanders into the kitchen. Sid sees his Ma “on her hands and knees scrubbing up something that looked like blood.” Sid, who’s White, tries to piece together the strange nighttime happenings in his home, and he stumbles upon young Elijah, who’s Black, hiding in his family’s barn; it turns out that Elijah’s on the run with his mother, Lula. Sid, along with his brother, Jimmy, and sister, Cora, are suddenly involved in protecting Elijah from discovery by bounty hunters August Mean and Roscoe Bones. Sid’s parents eventually explain that their home is a stop on the Underground Railroad and include Sid in their dangerous work; the bounty hunters keep a close eye on the family and their farm and even take destructive action. It’s revealed that Mean and Bones are after a skilled, anonymous person they call “that phantom slave stealer.” Later, after the Johnsons decide to move to California, they meet a friendly traveler named William Gallagher who crosses their path several more times. Over the course of Schoonmaker’s story, as seen through Sid’s eyes, the author presents a detailed portrayal of enslavement, abolitionists, and bounty hunters and gives young readers an intriguing and easy-to-understand introduction to the Underground Railroad. The author includes a number of dramatic moments along the way to maintain readers’ interest, including a plot-altering conflagration. The family’s trip west on a wagon train also helps to move the story along at a good pace.
A worthy, engaging story of an abolitionist family.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-7368278-8-8
Page Count: 167
Publisher: Auctus Publishers
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
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)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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