Black Pioneers: Home Is with Our Family
The historical facts are even more gripping than the fiction in this novel set in 1850s New York City. In the first chapter, Maria Peters, 13, is inspired when she hears Sojourner Truth deliver a thundering abolitionist speech in church. In the last chapter, Maria and her family must leave home when the city destroys their black community to make room for Central Park. At times, the narrative bogs down with the details of the huge cast of characters trying to organize resistance to the displacement. But the heartrending abolitionist story is made personal with Maria’s new, quiet friend in school, Anna, who turns out to be a fugitive hiding from the slave-catchers. Anna’s parents earned their freedom down South but Anna still belongs to the slave-owner, and her parents could be arrested for stealing her. So could Maria, for helping Anna. Woven throughout, the history of Central Park adds to the story’s underlying questions about the meaning of roots and displacement. Small, delicate illustrations by Lewis add interest at the opening of each chapter. Grades 5-8. --Hazel Rochman