SLAVERY

Lyons, Mary E. Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs . (Gr. 5-9)

Based on the true story of Harriet Jacobs, a young African American woman who overcame tremendous odds, including hiding in an attic for seven years, to attain her freedom from slavery.

Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn . (Gr. 7-10)

Nightjohn, an escaped slave, returns to the South to teach other slaves how to read, igniting a fire in the soul of young Sarny, who sees freedom in the forbidden words.

Paulsen, Gary. Sarny, A Life Remembered . (Gr. 6-9)

In this sequel to Nightjohn , Sarny, the young slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, tells her story of being freed by soldiers, heading for New Orleans to search for her children, and then what life was like in the new South.

Schwartz , Virginia Frances . Send One Angel Down . (Gr. 5-8)

Based on a story in Julius Lester's classic To Be a Slave , this is the true account of a slave girl's experiences whose father, the owner of the plantation, has promised not to sell - until his white daughters discover the truth and demand he get rid of her.

Taylor, Mildred. The Land . (Gr. 7-10)

In this prequel to the award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Cassie's father Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, is caught between two worlds as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Walker, Margaret. Jubilee . (Gr. 8+)

Based on the life of Vyry, Margaret Walker's great-grandmother, who was the child of a white plantation owner and his slave mistress, this is an account of her experiences during the Civil War, and as a woman freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Whitmore, Arvella. Trapped between the Lash and the Gun . (Gr. 5-9)

Twelve-year-old Jordan is becoming dangerously involved with a street gang when he is suddenly transported through time to become a slave on the plantation of his ancestors.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Armstrong, Jennifer. Steal Away . (Gr. 5-9)

In 1855 two thirteen-year-old girls, one white and one black, run away from a southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to recount their story forty-one years later to two similar young girls.

Ayres, Katherine. North by Night . (Gr. 6-9)

Lucy Spencer's diary and letters tell of her involvement with her family's underground railway activities in 1851 as they hide and then shepherd escaping slaves to safety.

Ayres, Katherine. Stealing South. (Gr. 7-10)

Will Spencer (16), whose family has been part of the Underground Railroad for years, leaves home to become a peddler, but he gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to go to Kentucky, steal two slaves, and help them reach their brother in Canada.

Carbone, Elisa. Stealing Freedom . (Gr. 7-10)

Based on the true story of Ann Maria Weems, a young teenage slave in Maryland who escaped on the Underground Railroad to Canada in the 1850s after she was separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid.

Fleischman, Paul. The Borning Room . (Gr. 5-9)

Lying at the end of her life in the room where she was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on the Ohio frontier as a member of a family of abolitionists.

Lasky, Kathryn. True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad . (Gr. 7+)

Lucy Bradford, fourteen, learns about the Underground Railroad and helps Afrika, a fugitive slave girl, make it to freedom in Canada .

Paterson, Katherine. Jip, His Story . (Gr. 6-9)

In this companion novel to Lyddie , which was set in the mills of Lowell, Mass., a young boy found abandoned on a country road grows up in the local poor farm, only to discover that he was not the son of a gypsy but of an escaped slave and needs Lyddie's help when slave catchers come after him.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story . (Gr. 5-9)

In alternating chapters, two young slaves, Summer (11) and her older brother Rosco (13) describing their life on the Parnell Plantation in 1862 Virginia . Summer dreams the impossible dream of learning to read, while Rosco dreams of fighting for his country and his freedom and finally escapes on the Underground Railroad.

Rinaldi, Ann. Mine Eyes Have Seen . (Gr. 6-9)

In the summer of 1859, Annie Brown, the daughter of famous abolitionist John Brown, is at the farm where her father is assembling his provisional army for the raid upon the arsenal at Harper's Ferry.

Stolz, Mary. Cezanne Pinto . (Gr. 6-9)

Now an old man, Cezanne recalls his youth as a slave, a traveler on the Underground Railway and as a cowboy out west.