Over Jordan - Hardcover

Johnston, Norma

3.1

10 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380976358 ISBN 13: 9780380976355

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

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Roxana has know and loved Joss for as long as she can remember, ever since Joss came to Grey's Landing ten years earlier, in 1826, to be Roxana's nursery maid. Even before the deaths of her mother and brother in a tragic riverboat accident, Roxana had thought of Joss as family.

When her father, a prominent judge, is called to Washington, Roxana must stay behind with Joss and the other free blacks on the plantation to run things and, to her surprise, "light the lanterns"-to act as a stationmaster, if necessary, on the Underground Railway. But even more unsettling to Roxana is the thought that Papa will be traveling on the river.

After reports of brutal slave catchers in the area make it clear that Joss and her fiance must seek refuge farther north, it's up to Roxana to escort them, posing as an arrogant young slave owner. Her former teacher, Miss Hattie Beecher of Cincinnati, hates slavery, but will Roxana be able to overcome her crippling fear of the river long enough to get them to Miss Hattie? And will others on board the riverboat -- particularly the gracious young Southern gentleman who takes a fancy to Roxana -- see through her performance? Or is he, too, masquerading -- and more dangerous than he seems?

Norma Johnston transports readers to the banks and roiling waters of the Ohio River in the difficult days before slavery was abolished, in a gripping historical novel that is also a poignant coming-of-age story.

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About the Author:

Norma Johnston is the author of Lotta's Progress as well as Harriet: The Life and World of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Louisa May: The World and Works of Louisa May Alcott, called "A fresh look at the beloved author of Little Women" in a starred School Library Journal review. The author of many other books, Norma Johnston lives in northern New Jersey.

From Library Journal:

Grade 5-8-Roxana Grey, a 14-year-old living in Indiana in 1836, knows about the evils of slavery, and her father, a judge, has told her harrowing stories of the mounting political tensions between abolitionists and slave owners. Leaving for Washington, where he hopes to convince lawmakers that slavery will destroy the nation forever, Judge Grey leaves Roxana in charge of the family estate, which, she learns as he is about to depart, is a station on the Underground Railroad. She takes courage and strength from her nursemaid Joss, a former slave whom she loves like a sister. When she learns that slave hunters have been spotted nearby, she fears that they will kidnap Joss and Gideon Mapes, Joss's fianc?. Still haunted by the steamboat accident that killed her mother and younger brother two years earlier, Roxana faces her fear of the water and transports Joss and Gideon upriver to safety in Cincinnati, OH, where they will seek a temporary safe haven with Harriet Beecher Stowe, Roxana's former teacher and outspoken abolitionist. The riverboat journey in which Roxana poses as a Southern lady traveling with two slaves is full of dramatic tension, providing the novel's best moments, and Johnston's exhaustive historical research offers a richly detailed portrait of the times, from the bustling traffic and colorful passengers on the Ohio River to the ugly apartheid that will inevitably plunge the country into civil war. Recommend that students read this novel along with Johnston's Harriet: The Life and World of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Beech Tree, 1996).
William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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