The Other Side of Free - Hardcover

Russell, Krista

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1561457108 ISBN 13: 9781561457106

Publisher: Peachtree Publishing Company, 2013

Synopsis

Jem has escaped from slavery. Now it’s up to him to decide what he believes, who he trusts, and what freedom really means.
In 1739, England and Spain are on the verge of war and former slaves are arriving at Fort Mose in St. Augustine, where the Spanish will give them their freedom in exchange for their loyalty. Fourteen-year-old Jem has escaped a cruel master but is now in the custody of Phaedra, a difficult and angry woman. He thought he was free, he thought he was a man, but Phaedra takes every opportunity to remind him that he’s still a child. As the threat of war becomes more real, Jem starts to understand the meaning of freedom.
Krista Russell’s action-packed historical adventure, provides readers with a chance learn, along with Jem, the complex connections that make a community and the significance of true freedom.

About this title

About the Author

Krista Russell is a graduate of Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular fiction program. A Massachusetts native, she now lives in Georgia.

From School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—A stern, exacting woman named Phaedra fosters 13-year-old Jem in Fort Mose, a Spanish enclave for escaped slaves in 18th- century Florida. In exchange for the protection of the Spanish government, the adult inhabitants of Fort Mose pledge to abandon traditional modes of belief and convert to Catholicism. The men must also join a militia to defend the neighboring settlement against the English. Their military commitment takes on terrifying import following the 1739 Stono slave rebellion. Exasperatingly positioned between childhood and maturity, Jem aches to evade Phaedra's belittling supervision and take up arms, but he fails to prove his intelligence and trustworthiness to the community leaders. Russell layers period and cultural details with a historian's enthusiasm, populating the story with Native American communities, Spanish colonists, Fort Mose refugees, and a French trader. Mining such rich and little-known material offers inherent value to library shelves and school curricula but Russell possibly attempts to pack too much into one book, including several minor mysteries and Jem's devoted rearing of a injured owlet. Though the characterization of Jem wobbles according to the dictates of subplots, the secondary figures retain more solidity; Phaedra in particular evinces an acerbic charm. When the British lay siege to the Spanish holdings, Russell successfully elevates the tension and sheds light on this fascinating moment in history. Readers will be immersed in the suspenseful intrigue and Jem's battle for freedom.—Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Library, NY

About this edition

• Publisher: Peachtree Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1561457108
• ISBN 13: 9781561457106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256