Written by: Levine, Ellen Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson, 2007, Scholastic Press, New York.
Interest level: 3-5 Reading level: 2 Lexile: 380
Key words: underground railway, Henry Brown, slavery, Caldecott honor books
This book is based on the true story of a man named Henry "Box" Brown. Henry escaped slavery by mailing himself in a box to Philadelphia from Richmond, Virginia.
The text of this book is very mild and appropriate for younger grades. The feature that is the most impressive in this book are the illustrations. Kadir Nelson has done an amazing job and they are beautiful. It's no surprise that this book is a Caldecott Honor Book.
This book would be a great book to introduce young students to the Slavery and the Underground Railway. The text isn't too explicit for young students but has enough information that it would be a great springboard for discussions about slavery. I found a great integrated lesson plan for this book. www.state.lib.la.us/empowerlibrary/henrys%20freedom%20box.doc
Here are some of the ideas:
Science: Astronomy. Talk about the role of constellations and the underground railway.
Art: Discuss lithographs.
Language Arts: Write a story about what you think happened next to Henry.
Though the text isn't very exciting the pictures make up for it. I think this book is beautiful and would be a good addition to a discussion about slavery or the underground railway.
No comments:
Post a Comment