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, KYCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.