Cover Image

Steal away

by Armstrong, Jennifer, 1961-

Format: Print Book 1992
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Millvale Community Library Juvenile Fiction JFIC ARM
Location  Millvale Community Library
 
Collection  Juvenile Fiction
 
Call Number  JFIC ARM
 
 

Summary
Set during the Civil War Era, this heartwrenching novel of two girls--one African American, one white--and their flight North to freedom, was called powerful, moving, and thought-provoking by Publishers Weekly. An American Bookseller Pick of the Lists in Orchard hardcover.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Gr. 7-10. Two unhappy 13-year-old girls on a Virginia farm in 1855--black slave Bethlehem and white orphan Susannah--disguise themselves as boys and escape together. More than 40 years later, as Bethlehem is dying in poverty in Canada, she calls Susannah to her. Together they tell their story to two young girls who write it down--Susannah's privileged white grandchild, Mary, and Bethlehem's black student, Free. The constant switch back and forth in narrators and in time between the 1850s and the 1890s makes you stop and think about the escape adventure, the friendship, and the enduring racism. Slavery's horrors are there, though understated. Susannah secretly teaches Bethlehem to read, and the girls save each other on their journey north, first alone, and then with the help of the Underground Railroad. Their friendship is never sentimentalized: we see that both must fight the violence in themselves, the desire to dump the other and get away alone. The close parallels between the old women and their young listeners are somewhat contrived, but the writer avoids any sweet resolution, past or present. She weaves a strong story of doubt and guilt as well as courage. (Reviewed Feb. 1, 1992)0531059839Hazel Rochman"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "In the fall of 1896 elderly Susannah McKnight coaxes her granddaughter Mary to travel with her to Canada to visit someone Mary regards as an ``old slave woman.'' Mary's vision of Bethlehem Reid is shattered, however, when she hears an amazing story of undying friendship and courage. As young girls Susannah and Bethlehem helped each other escape to the North: for Bethlehem, freedom; for Susannah, a return to the home she loved. Rich and emotionally resonant, this compelling, true story is told in compassionate, lush language; delighting not only in its poetic imagery and uncompromising clarity of expression but in the suspense and adventure of the girls' flight to personal liberty. Bethlehem and Susannah's friendship, born of circumstance and necessity, is never sentimentalized but remains fierce and heartbreaking to the last. This powerful, moving and thought-provoking narrative is sure to stay with readers long after it is finished. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Slavery -- Juvenile fiction.
African Americans -- Juvenile fiction.
Underground Railroad -- Juvenile fiction.
Grandmothers -- Juvenile fiction.
Slavery -- Fiction.
African Americans -- Fiction.
Underground Railroad -- Fiction.
Grandmothers -- Fiction.
Publisher New York :Scholastic Inc.,1992
Other Titles Steal away--to freedom
Audience RL5; 009-012.
Language English
Notes "An Apple paperback."
Description 206 pages ; 20 cm
ISBN 0590469215
9780590469210
Other Classic View