Book Descriptions
for Freedom's a-Callin' Me by Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
“knowin your way round the cotton field / is somethin’ these women know … but now it’s not the cotton on the ground / got their attention / this is the time to follow the north star …” Similar to We Troubled the Waters (Amistad, 2009), these volume pairs poems and paintings to illuminate a dimension of African American experience, in this case, individuals who escaped slavery (or in some cases, tried and failed). The poems, which follow a cohesive emotional arc, are sophisticated, and the paintings are haunting. Together they give a strong sense of the terror, danger, and resolve of those who dared to run. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2013. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2013. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Award-winning poet Ntozake Shange and artist Rod Brown reimagine the journeys of the brave men and women who made their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Fleeing on the Underground Railroad meant walking long distances; swimming across streams; hiding in abandoned shanties, swamps, and ditches, always on the run from slave trackers and their dogs.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.