Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Freedom River takes place during the civil war. In the story John Parker, a successful African American business man in Ohio, sneaks across the river in the night to help Kentucky slaves cross the river into the free state of Ohio. John Parker is a real person, although, Rappaport has taken the liberty to name the slaves and other characters in the story.
Rappaport is a great historical fiction writer. Her characters are believable, and the dialog is accurate. You can tell she does her homework before she writes a story like this. Collier's collage illustrations are beautiful, and do a great job in setting the appropriate mood for the story.
This would be a terrific book to use in an elementary classroom studying the Civil War. Books like this will really bring the fight for freedom from slavery to life for young students. I think that it would be interesting to have students read several historical fiction books like Freedom River, then try to write their own tale about a strong freedom fighter.
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