(Jan.) Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission. Ruthie's teacher has given her a copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Ruthie is quick to perceive the parallels: "a boy/ leaving behind what he knew/ and heading to what he don't/ just like me." The journey is seen through the eyes of richly developed characters drawn with care and sympathy. He moves in close to capture Ruthie's serious gaze and her parents' gentle exchange.
When the train crosses from the segregated South into the North, porters tell "everyone in the colored section/ to sit where they want." Some white passengers put their hands over empty seats, but the three find "smiles/ from new neighbors." Ransome renders the scenes realistically in bold colors, strong lines, and delicate collage-like patterns. Ruthie narrates she and her Mama and Daddy are leaving the fields of North Carolina for New York City aboard the Silver Meteor: "No more working someone else's land," Mama says. Warm portraiture and vivid writing by married collaborators Cline-Ransome and Ransome ( Before She Was Harriet) mark this story of a family's journey north during the Great Migration. Overground Railroad is, as Lesa notes, a story of people who were running from and running to at the same time, and it's a story that will stay with readers long after the final pages.Ī New York Public Library Best Book of the YearĪ School Library Journal Best Book of the Year James Ransome's mixed-media illustrations are full of bold color and texture, bringing Ruth Ellen's journey to life, from sprawling cotton fields to cramped train cars, the wary glances of other passengers and the dark forest through which Frederick Douglass traveled towards freedom. As they travel, Ruth Ellen reads from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, reflecting on how her journey mirrors her own- until finally the train arrives at its last stop, New York's Penn Station, and the family heads out into a night filled with bright lights, glimmering stars, and new possiblity. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.Įach leg of the trip brings new revelations as scenes out the window of folks working in fields give way to the Delaware River, the curtain that separates the colored car is removed, and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity the family hopes to find come into view. By Grade + Interest - K to 1st By Grade + Interest - 2nd to 3rd By Grade + Interest - 4th to 5thĪ window into a child's experience of the Great Migration from the award-winning creators of Before She Was Harriet and Finding Langston.Ĭlimbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North- one she can't begin to imagine.
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