Overview

When Lizzie's parents are granted their freedom from slavery, Mama says its time for Lizzie and her brother Paul to go to a real school--a new one, built just for them. Lizzie can't wait. The scraps of learning she has picked up here and there have just made her hungry for more. The walk to school is long. Some days it's rainy, or windy, or freezing cold. Sometimes there are dangers lurking along the way, like angry white folks with rocks, or mysterious men on horseback. The schoolhouse is still unpainted, and its very plain, but Lizzie has never seen a prettier sight. Except for maybe the teacher, Mizz Howard, who has brown skin, just like her. They've finally made it to Freedom's School. But will it be strong enough to stand forever?

Full Product Details

9781423161035

Table of Contents

Reviews

Emancipation means education. A little girl narrates her family's story in the days and months immediately after the end of slavery. Her parents decide that she and her brother must attend school in spite of the dangers they face walking there. The school does not have very much in the way of supplies or heat, but it does have a teacher with skin as brown as mine, says the girl. Students come and go depending on when they are needed in the field. Then racism strikes, and the school burns down. Still, the community spirit is strong, and the African-American neighbors come together to rebuild. Cline-Ransome does not give a specific locale for the story, thus making it representative of much of the rural South after the Civil War. Telling the story in the voice of a child helps to make the story more immediate and should help young readers appreciate the difficulties involved in building, maintaining and attending school. Ransome's watercolor paintings are richly evocative of the seasons while also creating memorable characters and emotions. The endpapers depicting a blackboard with upper- and lowercase letters written in chalk are a child-friendly touch. Readers don't need to have been recently emancipated to understand this eloquent testament to the overriding importance of school. (Picture book. 4-7) Kirkus

Gr 2-5 With the passage of the 13th Amendment, announced on the title page in a Boston Globe headline, comes the opportunity for Lizzie and her younger brother, presumably residents of the rural South, to attend school for the first time-a rough wooden structure where Mizz Howard introduces the children to their letters. But getting there means encountering hostile white people, and sometimes school is canceled due to impeding threats. When the building is deliberately set afire, it is the determination of their teacher and other African Americans in the community that allows them to rebuild and rekindle hope for a brighter future. The story is illustrated with Ransome's signature lush, watercolor paintings, all spreads in warm tones of brown, gold, and red contrasted with many shades of green and deep blue. In stark contrast are the endpapers, a white chalk upper- and lowercase alphabet against solid black, symbolic of the struggle between the races. VERDICT A stunning package that adds to the body of literature documenting the African American experience. Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY SLJ

Author Information

Lesa Cline-Ransome (www.lesaclineransome.com) and James E. Ransome have paired up to create several acclaimed picture books, including Satchel Paige, Young Pele, Quilt Alphabet, Before There Was Mozart, Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass, Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson, and Light in the Darkness. Lesa is also the author of Before Now, illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Freedom was inspired by her research into African American education immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation. James E. Ransome (www.jamesransome.com) has illustrated nearly fifty books for children, including The Creation, a Coretta Scott King Award Book; Uncle Jed's Barbershop, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; This Is the Dream; and A Pride of African Tales, an NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. His traveling exhibit Visual Stories has been touring the United States since 2003. The Children's Book Council named him one of seventy-five authors and illustrators everyone should know. Lesa and James live in Rhinebeck, New York, with their four children and their Saint Bernard, Nola.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available