Secret Signs : An Escape Through the Underground Railroad

Kindergarten-Grade 3. When slave catchers prevent Luke's mother from selling sugar eggs at the general store as she usually does, the boy, who communicates through sign language, must find the courage and means to deliver the information about a new hiding place for runaway slaves. He secretly removes a painting in one of the eggs and creates a replacement, thus identifying the new site, and puts the egg in the contact's hands. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor and gouache, are somewhat amateurish and anachronistic, e.g., Luke's paint box looks like it came from a modern-day Woolworths. While readers may be interested in how the deaf boy conveys the secret message, the story itself is contrived. Stronger books on the Underground Railroad include Faith Ringgold's Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky (Crown, 1993) and Michael Rosen's A School for Pompey Walker (Harcourt, 1995).?Susan M. Moore, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Riggio (A Moon in My Teacup, 1993, etc.) combines folk art and her experiences with sign language into a story about the Underground Railroad. Luke, who is deaf, paints scenes on paper to insert into the sugar eggs he and Mama sell as novelties at the general store, but they are interrupted by a pair of wild-eyed slave catchers who burst into their house. They detain Mama but allow Luke to take the eggs to town, where he intends to pass along information about a safe haven to a contact on the Underground Railroad. As Luke and the man ride into town, the boy secretly disposes of a newly painted scene from one of the eggs. Once in the store, he easily spots his contact, and by turning the creation of a new scene into a small piece of performance art, distracts the slave- catcher long enough to transfer his valuable message. Although some readers may find the story interesting, it has a patched- together, arbitrary feel; the ``secret signs'' of the title are never mustered into an essential part of the story, not as sign language, nor as signals (e.g., the quilt outside the cabin in Pamela Duncan Edwards's Barefoot, p. 1736) that helped ``passengers'' of the Underground Railroad along the route. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.