Chasing Freedom

  His­to­ry is often taught in bits and pieces, and stu­dents rarely get the notion that these bits and pieces are con­nect­ed,” writes Coret­ta Scott King Award–winning author Grimes in her author’s note. Here, she and fel­low Coret­ta Scott King–winning illus­tra­tor Wood imag­ine an after­noon tea con­ver­sa­tion between suf­fragette Susan B. Antho­ny and Under­ground Rail­road con­duc­tor Har­ri­et Tub­man, where the women take turns relat­ing inter­con­nect­ed sto­ries from their lives. Each spread, includ­ing a page of text and a full-page illus­tra­tion, tells a sin­gle anec­dote, includ­ing per­son­al turn­ing points in each woman’s life and major his­tor­i­cal events, such as John Brown’s raid on Harpers Fer­ry. In keep­ing with both activists’ strong reli­gious con­vic­tions, God and bib­li­cal ref­er­ences are invoked often, and Wood’s painter­ly illus­tra­tions fea­ture pat­terns inspired by Amer­i­can patch­work quilts and tra­di­tion­al African motifs. Back mat­ter includes short biogra­phies, addi­tion­al notes, a bib­li­og­ra­phy, and an author’s note. Tex­tu­al voice and bold pic­to­r­i­al col­or are strong, and Anthony’s and Tubman’s goals main­tain rel­e­vance at a time when gen­der and race issues con­tin­ue to be news­wor­thy. Skirt­ing the edges of fic­tion­al­ized biog­ra­phy can be tricky. Although Antho­ny and Tub­man did meet repeat­ed­ly, Grimes states that this extend­ed con­ver­sa­tion comes pure­ly from her imag­i­na­tion. Younger read­ers, who may not real­ize this imme­di­ate­ly, may need guid­ance dis­tin­guish­ing the his­tor­i­cal facts from the fic­tion­al­ized mus­ings. Audi­ences will­ing to embrace the unusu­al con­cept, though, may view this as a van­guard piece in an engag­ing new­form that mix­es non­fic­tion with his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. (School Library Jour­nal, starred review)