Night Boat to Freedom - Hardcover

Raven, Margot Theis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374312664 ISBN 13: 9780374312664

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2006

Synopsis

When Granny Judith asks twelve-year-old Christmas John to row Molly, cook’s daughter, across the river from Kentucky to the Free State of Ohio, he’s terrified. Bravely, he begins the first of many journeys. Each time he returns, Granny Judith asks what color clothing his passenger wore, for she’s had a dream-vision and is making a quilt from squares of these “freedom colors.” When there are only two squares left, she tells him, “Dream says we got to get ourselves over the river, ’cause the danger’s gonna grow awful.”
 
This compelling story, powerfully and poignantly illustrated, is a memorable celebration of courage, hope, and unselfish love. Night Boat to Freedom is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

About this title

About the Author:

MARGOT THEIS RAVEN and E. B. LEWIS collaborated on Circle Unbroken, a Booklist Top 10 Black History Book for Youth. The author lives in Charleston, South Carolina; the artist, a Caldecott Honor recipient, lives in Folsom, New Jersey.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* The team who created Circle Unbroken (2004) once again brings African American history close. Drawing on accounts in the Slave Narrative Collection, compiled during the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project, Raven presents her story from the viewpoint of Christmas John, 12, born on Christmas morning and raised on a Kentucky plantation by Granny Judith, who was captured as a child in Africa. One night Granny Judith asks him to row a young slave across the river to freedom in Ohio. Christmas John is scared, but he helps the slave and many others escape. Finally, it becomes too dangerous for him to stay on the plantation. Granny Judith wants him to leave, but how can he leave her behind? The older mentor is as tough as the young boy, and Lewis' beautiful, unframed double-page spreads depict the bond between them, including their heartbreaking farewell embrace. The close-ups filled with the richly colored details of Granny Judith's dyed quilts are in stark contrast to the pictures of the night sky and black water, and the shadows of the runaways in the woods. Words and pictures work perfectly together, making sound from silence and light from darkness. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0374312664
• ISBN 13: 9780374312664
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Lewis E. B.