Adventures in Books

One of our favorite adventures as Graves are the places that we go through the books that we read. This year in our little school, we are learning about the American Civil War, so we have begun to have some adventures in the mid 1800s, starting with learning a little about slavery. This is a pretty tough subject, but really amazing as we learn about the people whose faith helped them to endure hardships and cruelty, whose courage helped them to escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad, and whose compassion helped them to rescue others and work for equality, justice and freedom. Here are a few great books that we would recommend to you, if you are studying slavery, the underground railroad or abolition in school, or as family read alouds...

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom By Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by Kadir Nelson I really liked this picture book about Harriett Tubman. The book covers events from Harriett's life and crucial decision points for her. It features conversations between Harriett and God that appropriately emphasizes her dependance on God and her prayer life. The illustrations were excellent. This was a good follow-up to our read aloud on Harriett Tubman's childhood. (See below.)

John Brown: His Fight For Freedom By John Hendrix This is a picture book that would actually be appropriate for middle elementary grades. It discusses the abolitionist John Brown and his raid on Harper's Ferry. It takes a very complex issue and handles it very well for kids. There are some discussions of the economic issues involved with slavery and the controversial decision to try to lead an armed slave rebellion. There is a little more violence than would be appropriate for a picture book (one discussion of John Brown's killing men with a broadsword and one mention of Brown's death by hanging), so this might be one you would want to preview for younger kids.

Courage to Run By Wendy Lawton We really enjoyed this book about the early life of Harriett Tubman. Rather than dealing with her escape from slavery, or her work on the Underground Railroad, it dealt with her childhood as a slave and some of the events that shaped her and her faith and prepared her for her future. This book incorporates several Negro Spirituals into the text, so if you are reading it aloud, you might want to brush up on those songs (or get a CD from the library) - as it really adds to the reading to sing them instead of read them. Most were familiar to me (Go Down Moses, Wade in the Water, Let My People Go), but several I did not know. As with any book about slavery, this book does discuss the violence done to slaves, which I think is appropriate for the story - but you may want to read slightly ahead if you want to be careful with how graphic you want to be with your kids.

Amos Fortune, Free Man By Elizabeth Yates We read this book last year, because the time period for this song was a little further before the turbulent era of the Underground Railroad. This book deals with slavery, but not from the aspect of escaping from it, but from a slave that works to buy his own freedom and then the freedom of others as well. This was an excellent book. I was constantly finding connections between physical slavery and our spiritual slavery to sin. I think this book really helped to illustrate to the boys the implications of what it means to be a slave and then also to be "redeemed" or "bought with a price". We talked about what it meant when Paul says, "It was for freedom that Christ set you free, so do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." This is a great family read aloud for any family. Do you have any other favorites for kids on this period of history? I would love to hear your comments! (Coming soon... more civil war era books for kids and adults.)