Freedom Ship - Hardcover

Rappaport, Doreen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786806451 ISBN 13: 9780786806454

Publisher: Jump At The Sun, 2006

Synopsis

Samual and his family are born slaves. Every day they look beyond the harbor filled with Confederate ships, to the Atlantic Ocean, where the Union ships are--and potentially, their freedom. If only they could get to those ships somehow....Then, on May13, 1862, Samuel and his family risk it all to be free.



Based on a true story, Doreen Rappaport weaves a riveting tale of a boy and his family aboard the gunboat Planter. Captained by Robert Smalls and loaded with fellow slaves, the ship flees to the Union fleet to gain freedom from slavery and deliver much-needed ammunition to the Union Navy. Rappaport's suspenseful account, illustrated with the moody paintings of Curtis James, creates a vivid and relatable picture of this little-known tale of the civil war.

About this title

About the Author

Doreen Rappaport (www.doreenrappaport.com) has written numerous award-winning books for children, including: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Honor Book; and Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. She lives and writes in upstate New York.



Curtis James (www.curtisejames.com) is an award-winning fine artist whose large-scale pastels are exhibited in museums and galleries and held in private collections throughout the country. He is the illustrator of several children's books. Mr. James lives with his wife in Pennsylvania.

Reviews

Grade 3-6–Educators will welcome this story, based on a true incident, about slaves who commandeered a Confederate ship and sailed to freedom. A present-day boy introduces the tale, which is told from his great-great-grandfather's point of view. Robert Smalls is the real pilot of the ship, even though the captain calls him a wheelman. Smalls and the nine-member crew kidnap the Planter and carry five black women and their three children to safety by offering the steamer and its weaponry to a Union vessel. Samuel swabs the deck with the crew but does not know about the escape plan, even as his mother rouses him from sleep and hurries them noiselessly to the waiting boat. The dark colors and shadows in the realistic chalk-pastel drawings suggest the secrecy of the families' nighttime escape, while the facial features and body language express urgency. Endpapers feature reproductions of a map of the Charleston Harbor and a picture of Smalls. An author's note tells more about his subsequent military service and terms as both a South Carolina and U.S. legislator. Pair this title with Eloise Greenfield's How They Got Over: African Americans and the Call of the Sea (HarperCollins, 2003), which tells Smalls's story in a collective biography that highlights historically significant African Americans connected to the sea.–Julie R. Ranelli, Kent Island Branch Library, Stevensville, MD
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The Civil War history is thrilling: in 1862, Robert Smalls, 23, a black wheelman on the Confederate steamship Planter, and other members of the ship's slave crew, seized the ship and delivered it to the Union Army. Five black women and three children escaped to freedom with the crew, and Rappaport uses the fictionalized viewpoint of one of the children to tell her story. Mama wakes Samuel in the night, and they row out to the Planter, which skims over the water past the Union fleet until all aboard are free. Though personal narrative gives the story immediacy, and the handsome illustrations show the strong child and his proud, smiling family standing tall, Rappaport's lengthy note about Smalls is even more exciting than the fiction. For readers who want to know more, she has provided a bibliography and list of Web sites. Link this with Pamela Duncan Edwards' Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad (1998). Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Jump At The Sun
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786806451
• ISBN 13: 9780786806454
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: James Curtis
• Number of pages: 40