Henry's Freedom Box [Hardcover]

A stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.

Henry Brown doesn't know how old he is. Nobody keeps records of slaves' birthdays. All the time he dreams about freedom, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse. Henry grows up and marries, but he is again devastated when his family is sold at the slave market. Then one day, as he lifts a crate at the warehouse, he knows exactly what he must do: He will mail himself to the North. After an arduous journey in the crate, Henry finally has a birthday -- his first day of freedom.Kirkus StarredNelson's powerful portraits add a majestic element to Levine's history-based tale of Henry BoxBrown, a slave who escaped by having himself mailed to freedom in a crate. Depicted as a solemn boywith an arresting gaze on the cover, Henry displays riveting presence in every successive scene, as hegrows from child to adult, marries and is impelled to make his escape after seeing his beloved wife andchildren sold to slaveowners. Related in measured, sonorous prose that makes a perfect match for the art,this is a story of pride and ingenuity that will leave readers profoundly moved, especially those who mayhave been tantalized by the entry on Brown in Virginia Hamilton's Many Thousand Gone: AfricanAmericans from Slavery to Freedom (1993). (afterword, reading list) (Picture book. 8-10)How did people escape on the Underground Railroad? What was it like to land on Ellis Island?How did it feel to travel the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon? Ellen Levine has revealed worldsof fascinating adventure with her nonfiction books for young readers.Although Ellen Levine enjoys reading and writing fiction, most of her books for young readershave been nonfiction. Writing nonfiction lets me in behind the scenes of the story. I enjoylearning new things and meeting new people, l³8