Product Description

Traces the African American slave experience through paintings beginning with the Middle Passage and concluding with images of post-Civil War emancipation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168260 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780140566697
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Amazon.com Review
Slavery is a difficult concept to address with children, especially because many adults would prefer to forget that period of American history. In From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, award-winning author Julius Lester takes older children (and adults) on an intense, personal journey through the slave experience. As he gently explains the factual horrors of slave-ship conditions, auction blocks, plantation life, and the risks associated with escape, Lester consistently prods young readers with probing questions: "How would I feel if that happened to me?" "Would you risk going to jail to help someone you didn't know?" "You are free, but are you?" Lester also asks us to imagine the voices and feelings of the African Americans in the illustrations--another brilliant call for active participation.

Rod Brown's paintings are achingly vivid, so much so that a few may be too powerful for younger children. Certain depictions are difficult even for adults to bear: a lynched man with the bloody blows of a whip marking his back; slaves stacked seven-high in the hold of a ship, packed onto shelves with less room than the drawers of a morgue; and black bodies bobbing in the ocean. These are horrible images, but nonetheless historically accurate and important to remember. Brown took seven years to create these startling images, and his careful attention is reflected in the paintings' power and emotion. Children may be initially startled by From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, but they will also be engaged and enlightened. (Ages 10 to 13)

From Publishers Weekly
"Brown's 21 paintings provide a cohesive narrative line and have a stunning power of their own, but the confrontational tone of the text may usurp readers' attention," said PW of this volume, which traces the African-American journey from the Middle Passage to post-Civil War emancipation. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 5 Up?Brown's 22 brilliant and dramatic paintings of slaves and slavery in America are the attention-riveting basis for this picture-book history. Lester's carefully crafted words are the threads that weave about the pictures, inviting readers, whether black or white, to "invest soul" and to reach "an understanding in the heart" of what Africans endured over the 250 years from the first slave ships to Emancipation. The illustrations, bright with color contrasts and skillfully composed, were previously shown in gallery exhibits. They are effectively displayed against glossy white pages. The portraits of men and women show statuesque, cleanly sculptured bodies, strong in their attitudes, whether laboring, filled with silent anger, or gathered in prayer. Many of the scenes so artfully portrayed are those depicting suffering, from the dreaded Middle Passage to field labor, the slave market, attempts to escape, and the cost in whippings and lynchings. Finally, in the last paintings, the Civil War and the joyful road to freedom mark the end of this darkest period in American history. Lester's words guide readers into the pictures, offering background facts, creating dialogue, or constructing the thoughts of the pictured persons. At intervals, the text breaks to suggest an "Imagination Exercise," or to question readers on how they would act or feel. This is a powerful book, and it is an important one. It asks African Americans to understand the experience and honor the strength of the ancestors who survived these ordeals. It asks whites to understand the price exacted by past domination and cruelty on the fabric of society today.?Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

This book is a "must read" for all children!
Julius Lester has an amazing way with words in this powerful book about the journey to America on the slaveship. The illustrator, Rod Brown, is phenomenal! The two of them together made this book a tool for empowering young people to understand the experiences of Africans coming to America against their will. Although some of the content is tear-jerking and painful, it is necessary reading for all upper elementary and higher grade students. Adults should read it too!

A powerful exploration of African-American history
"From Slave Ship to Freedom Road" combines text by Julius Lester with the superb paintings of Rod Brown. Together they tell the story of African-American enslavement and freedom.

Brown's paintings are truly stunning. He creates images that are often disturbing and graphic: men chained together like cargo in a slave ship's hold, a slave's back bloody with fresh welts, etc. But he also renders the faces of people with great care and tenderness.

At times, I felt that Lester's text was a bit too racially charged (for example, he includes separate "Imagination Exercises" for black and white readers). But on the whole, this is a moving and educational book. Also, there is text and an illustration explaining how many whites risked their lives to help escaped slaves; this aspect of the book is an effective celebration of racial reconciliation.

Never have words and pictures been more perfect together.
Even though the book is for children it will open the eyes and heart of anyone that reads it. It's like the painting was done as the story was written. I had a chance to meet Rod Brown and he does an excellent job of reviewing the book while displaying his art work. I was moved to tears.