My Name Is Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom - Hardcover

Cooper, Afua

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1553378121 ISBN 13: 9781553378129

Publisher: Kids Can Press, 2009

Synopsis

This is the remarkable story of Phillis Wheatley, who is born into an African family of griots, or storytellers, but captured by slave raiders and forced aboard a slave ship, where appalling conditions spell death for many of her companions. Numerous sharks follow the ship, feeding on the corpses of slaves thrown overboard. Weakened by the voyage and near death in a Boston slave market, Wheatley is bought by a kind family who nurses her back to health and teaches her to read and write. Soon her mistress recognizes that the girl is a quick learner and talented. At the age of 12, a torrent of poetry begins to flow out of Wheatley. Proud of her achievements, her mistress organizes readings in Boston's finest parlors and drawing rooms, and Wheatley's fame spreads. But even when many in Boston are calling her a prodigy and a genius, some remain unsure that a slave should be able to write, much less write poetry. When Phillis travels to London she is a media sensation, feted by the cream of English society. A book of her poems is published, and she finally gains her freedom. This amazing story, wide in scope, is based on fact and told convincingly from young Wheatley's point of view.

About this title

About the Author

Afua Cooper is a scholar, author and poet who specializes in the history of slavery and abolition. Her books include My Name Is Phillis Wheatley, My Name Is Henry Bibb and The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—Part historical fiction and part informational biography, this novel about the poet's life and times is told in the first person and captures both the struggles and achievements of Wheatley's remarkable life. Starting in Africa before she is captured by slave traders, the book recounts Penda Wane's memories of her family and her early education as a griot, a traditional role passed down in her family. The story moves quickly as she describes the deplorable conditions aboard the slave ship and then being sold to the Wheatley family on the docks of Boston, but the pacing slows noticeably in the second half of the book. The Wheatleys' experiment to see if a slave can be educated begins Phillis's other life, in which she grows to become a well-known poet, both in the colonies and in England. The mounting tensions of the American Revolution and the colonists' desire for freedom provide a backdrop that mirrors Phillis's own yearning for freedom and identity throughout her life. The writing is generally strong and engaging, drawing readers immediately into Wheatley's agonies of being forcibly taken from her home as a child, but the voice is of an adult remembering her youth, and not that of a child telling her story. Pair this book with Kathryn Lasky's A Voice of Her Own (Candlewick, 2003) or Maryann Weidt's Revolutionary Poet (Carolrhoda, 1997) to give a complete picture of this unique individual.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA END

About this edition

• Publisher: Kids Can Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1553378121
• ISBN 13: 9781553378129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152