Customer Reviews

Friend on Freedom River (Tales of Young Americans)

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A young man risks his own safety and freedom to help a family finish a trip on the Underground Railroad. Told from the young man's point of view, this picture book would be a good read-aloud to provide another perspective on this important part of North American history. The illustrations are large and colorful, adding to the book's value as a read-aloud. This book would work with groups of children between grades 1 and 4.

"Are you a friend?'

About 40,000 slaves traveled along Michigan's Underground Railway, many of them running for freedom through Detroit and across the river into Canada. There are memorials to this on both sides of the Detroit River. (You can see them at eddwight.com, click on Public Art Projects). Friend on Freedom River is the story of one such family, looking for friends to help them across, and the French immigrant family who helps them to safety.

When Louis' father went away for the winter to work in the logging camps for the winter he told Louis, "...just do what you think I would have done." Of course, neither of them had any idea that would involve a trip at night in December all the way across the nearly frozen river to Canada and back again. And with the patrol boats out on the river, too. On the other hand, "If you don't take us, we might as well jump in and drown ourselves."

So together Louis and the runaway slaves risk their lives in the strong current, rowing and singing together,

"O Lord, O my Lord, keep me from sinking down
I tell you what I mean to do
Keep me from sinking down
...I look up yonder and what do I see?
I see the angels beckoning me"

This book has wonderful large pictures stretching across both pages, that draw us into the minds of the characters. It also tells a little bit about an important part of the history of Michigan.

See pictures of the author and her family and her home in the woods of northern Michigan at www.gloriawhelan.com .

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My kid's first/second grade class did a unit on slavery. I thought that was a little young, but since it came up organically during class, the teachers decided to go with it. I provided this book, along with a couple of others for them to go over in class. The teachers were thrilled. Most of the books they had were for older kids. The students learned a lot and seemed to really understand (at least my son did). I highly recommend this.

My 4yo was asking about the Civil War, and I wanted a gentle introduction to the occurrence of slavery. When I saw this book, I knew that I had found what I was looking for. Reading about how one family helped slaves to freedom allowed me to talk about how bad slavery was while focusing on the noble people that helped.

As an added bonus, my music-loving daughter loved the mention of songs in the story--one a French folk song and the other a Negro spiritual (although finding those songs to play for her was a challenge).