North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad [Paperback]

Katherine Ayres (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

It's 1851 and Lucy Spencer's family is keeping a secret. Their Ohio home is a station on the Underground Railroad, the network of people and places that helps fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Lucy believes in what she and her family do to help the fugitives, even if it means putting herself in danger.

So Lucy doesn't hesitate when she is asked to stay with the Widow Aurelia Mercer and help her with a family of runaway slaves hiding in her attic. And she learns so much from her experience--about growing up, love, and standing on her own. But what will Lucy do when she is asked to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave all she loves behind?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A 16-year-old girl with two suitors undertakes a daring plan to help slaves along the Underground Railroad. According to PW, "The heroine's dramatic self-actualization is at least as important as the period setting." Ages 10-up. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-In January, 1851, Lucinda Spencer, age 16, writes her second entry of the new year from the free state of Ohio. In answer to God's call and as a matter of personal conscience, her father has made the family farm a station on the Underground Railroad. Lucinda has grown up with this charge but also believes it to be her own. She leaves her home to help a neighbor protect nine fugitives (mostly children) on the woman's farm and, in the end, shepherds a newborn to freedom in Canada after the mother dies, thus never seeing her own family again. Through Lucinda's diary, spanning approximately three months, Ayres explains and condemns the Fugitive Slave Act, argues politics, touches on Southern laws preventing the teaching of reading to slaves, and builds a plot that culminates in freedom for the runaways and the coming of age of a young woman. There are steady references to budding romance (Lucinda has two wooers) and to God's plan and God's peoples. The author's obvious research is demonstrated and so, at times, is her descriptive voice. She handles most of the story gracefully; but there is a lot going on-bits of antislavery tracts, Quaker philosophy, rights of women/peoples. It will take a careful and skillful reader to get it all. There has been a growing body of literature that addresses slavery for this audience. Margaret Goff Clark's Freedom Crossing (Scholastic, 1991) is still one of the best for its suspense, ideals, and characterizations. Also recommend Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn (Delacorte, 1993) and, of course, Paula Fox's classic The Slave Dancer (Bradbury, 1973).
Harriett Fargnoli, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (January 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044022747X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440227472
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > History & Historical Fiction > United States > Other

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summary and Review, October 27, 2002

By 

Laurenda and Kelli (Oxford, Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North By Night (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

Life in the 1850's was an intense period in American history. Conflicts between the northern and southern ways of life caused major conflicts. Life was challenging but families worked together to create thriving homes. Set up as a series of dated journal entries, the pages of this engaging novel are straight from the mind of a courageous heroine, sixteen-year old Lucinda Spencer. Between farming chores and a blossoming love life, Lucinda struggles with an abundance of challenges and choices. Her great passion in life since the age of 12 is to work with her family on the Underground Railroad and help fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. When other local Ohio conductors are caught breaking the Fugitive Slave Laws by harboring runaways, her family must be more cautious than ever. Despite the consequences of imprisonment and high fines, Lucy braves her greatest challenge when an expectant mother is among a group of weary fugitives in the dead of winter. While her friends believe she is nursing the respected Miss Aurelia during her alleged battle with smallpox, she is actually helping the widow, a fellow worker, prepare her new friends for their journey north. During this time, she communicates with her loved ones through written letters and with the reader through journal entries. Lucy quickly learns there is more to life than traditional sewing and cooking skills. She deals with complex issues of loyalty and diversity. In the end, when she is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice, she learns the real meaning of sacrificial love. Although written on a fifth grade level, this book has implied themes of slavery and adult relationships that may seem more suitable for seventh or eight graders. It could easily be used to reinforce lessons in history, geography, music, and character values. An interesting approach to a shadowy topic all as seen through the eyes of one exceedingly valiant teenage girl, North by Night is historical fiction at its best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons of growing up, love, and responsibility, January 30, 2000

By 

stephanie kirk - See all my reviews

This review is from: North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)

Through the inspiring journal entries of a sixteen year old, young readers can feel what it must be like to work on the Underground Railroad. Lucy Spencer has been helping on the Underground Railroad since she was twelve years old. When Lucy is asked to help at the Widow Mercer's house at the age of sixteen to hide a family of runaway slaves in the attic, she doesn't hesitate. The way Lucy gets one of these slaves to freedom is so moving. I absolutely loved this book and it made me and will make readers of any age think about sacrifices that we make for people in our lives or that we should make. Readers will also get a sense of the time period that the book is set in and how it must have been back then.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars North By Night, September 11, 2003

By 

Jessica (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

When I read this book, I immediately fell in love with it. Not only does it have adventure and romance, but it made me actually interested in history for once. This book is about the courageous 16-year-old abolitionist Lucinda Spencer, whose house is a station in the underground railroad. Her world is a world of slave rescue and secrecy, division between the north and south over the Fugitive Slave Laws. She sets off on the greatest adventure and deception of her life. She is to help Miss Aurelia aid runaway slaves to freedom, under the story that Miss Aurelia has small pox and Lucy is helping her to recover. Her must help nine slaves, one an expectant mother, and now her new friends prepare to go to Canada. She keeps in touch with her family and friends through letters. She learns her true beliefs and the beliefs of others and learns that for her there will be more to life than cooking and cleaning. In the end, when she must make her biggest sacrifice and give up everything she has known and loved, she learns how much she has taken for granted. This is a book that not only contains adventure and romance, but also portrays the the topic of slavery through the eyes of a brave 16-year-old heroine.