Customer Reviews

Steal Away

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is hard to put down, for Jennifer Armstrong weaves a compelling story of interracial friendships--a tale within a tale which spans 3 generations. Alternating between 1855 (when Slavery was grimly legal) and the "present" of 1896, STEAL AWAY presents readers with a literary device known shared narratives, so that each girl very has the opportunity to give a first-person account of their flight from Virginia to the their new life up North. Both their modern counterparts, Mary and Free, are captivated, as elderly women whom they love and respect recount the details of this 40-year-old odyssey; the girls share their writing-down task, as they marvel at the pages--the seal of their lifelong devotion. Will two strange girls be able to bond, by the mere act of the retelling, for it was both a physical and an emotional journey to find freedom and Home?

Thirteen-year-old Susannah is suddenly orphaned and forced to leave the family farm in Vermont, with all its precious memories of her parents, the boy next door, and her carefree existence. She must travel by train (an ordeal in itself) down to a new world, in Virginia, to the farm of her Reverend uncle, who firmly believes in the insitution of slavery. But Susannah will never fit into this genteel Southern society; she does not even know how to treat or address her own personal slave!

Longing to put plantation life and its immoral abuse of dark-skinned human beings behind her forever, spunky Susannah resolves to run away and sneak back to the only home she has ever known. But she needs the help of more worldy-wise Bethlehem, to prepare for this dangerous enterprise. Suddenly circumstances force both girls to depart together, with a minimum of preparation. Beth longs for Canada--a place on a map where there is no slavery. Would she truly be safe in free Vermont? Susannah has also broken the law, for she taught Beth to read, and now is helping a slave escape from its rightful owner.

Can two young teenage girls disappear without a trace, even disguised as boys? Will there be anyone to trust on this perilous undertaking? What do they know of the Undeground Railroad? Their relationship undergoes many transformations, as Susannah becomes increasingly dependent on her pessimistic companion for survival. Yet Bethlehem dreads the unspoken but inevitable fork in the road--where each one must choose which path leads to her true Home in a hostile world. A gripping tale which will captivate readers of all ages with its raw emotions and mutual coming of age; it offers implications for today's racial relations and should have won some Newbery award!

The book was written well, but in a confusing format. Mary is writing down a story from her grandmother's childhood, with help from a girl named Free. The book however starts with a message from Mary to Free written later when they had grown up. This letter, and the one at the end as well, confused me and threw me off.
The story being told is, as I said, about Mary's Grandmother. She was born in Vermont in a time before slavery was abolished. This is the story of how when her parents died she was sent to live in Virginia with her slave owning, preacher uncle. The fact that a preacher owns slaves confuses her because she has grown up in Vermont, and she is further set off balance by being given a slave named Bethlehem. They decide to run away, and throughout their travels you can't tell if they are friends or people who are determined that the other is a burden on them.

For better historical fiction I suggest Ann Rinaldi

I reccomend this book to anyone. A story of 2 girls, a white yankee and a slave, banding together to fight for freedom, and so much more. This powerful story is testament to the struggles of the races in the 1800's. Whether you are interested in slavery and the south or not, this book is for you.

This book, Steal Away by Jennifer Armstrong is amazing. It is about a woman named Mary who has a flashback of her learning about her grandma's experiences while running away from home to Virginia. Her grandma is named Susanna and her parents died so she had to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She leaves home after she realizes there is nother there for her. She runs away with a slave named Bethlehem and on their jouney they face many problems. One problem is they don't have food or water, but they make some friends along the way. Anyone who likes Historical Fiction, risk and trust would love this book. I like this book because Mary finds a whole other side of her grandma. You should read this book and make up your own mind if you like it.

Ms. Armstrong takes the reader into the heart of tension between slavery and abolition, white and black, young and old. While fiction, the historic facts are accurate making the story work to draw readers into a better understanding of history. I enjoyed the interplay of two voices either while in the past or in the "present" of late 19th century. Good book for teachers to use with students fifth grade and up.

Steal Away

I really did like this book but it was very confusing. It jumped back and fourth from place to place a lot and I often got confused. So if I had to rate this book from one to ten I would give it a seven. I also didn't really enjoy it because it was kind of dull and nothing exciting really happened. One thing I did like about this book is the way it started out it was one of the best parts of the book, it was very exciting and suspenseful. Although I liked the book pretty well it had some bad points, like it really moved way to fast and never stayed on one subject long enough so that you knew what it was talking about it was very confusing. At the end of the book it was really confusing because it mentioned characters that it hadn't mentioned since the beginning of the book so I didn't know exactly what it was talking about and I had to keep looking back. I have read books that are much better than this one but I have also read many books that are much worse. So that means that I think this book is pretty good. I also think that this book is mostly for older people to read because it is very in depth and very historic, most kids weren't alive in those days so they can't relate to it and sometimes what makes a book good is when you can relate to it. So grown ups can relate to it better if they were alive in those times but kids can't relate at all because they weren't alive.

This book was boring and swithes between years, which confused me, and wasnt very entertaining. It was basically the same thing all the way through the book. There are much better books available.

The flight of Bethlehem and Susannah is unlike any other runaway story you have ever read. Though both are running to "freedom" together, the white orphan is not realy freed until 40 years after the black slave. Friendship and betrayal are closely examined in the story set in 1855 and 1896.

The story of two girls, a white orphan and an African American slave girl, and their friendship fleeing the South before the Civil War could be an intriguing tale. But sadly, the writer uses flashbacks and a reunion about 40 years later in order to help relate the story. I believe the writer would have been more effective if she had followed the story's narrative in 1855 and then progressed until 1896.

Sometimes, simple storytelling could be just as effective without using writer's devices like flashbacks. The book is aimed for young readers. Even though I'm not young, I was confused by how the book unfolded. While the book has a great story, it just needs to be told in a better format and revised for future readers.

Steal Away is about two girls, Bethlehem and Susannah, that have bonded over a couple of months. They concluded that they should run away from Susannah's uncle's farm. Susannah has just been orphaned after her parent's death that occured up in Vermont. But there is a catch, it isn't so easy as it sounds. This takes place during the slavery times. The girls cut their hair and steal some old cloths that were once Susannah's cousin's cloths. They then packed all of their belongings and headed north. They have to overcome many of the challenges on their way and many dangers. They gain friends and enemies and have to run away from slavery.

Susannah was from up north and when she was suddenly orphaned her only relative was her uncle. So she was brought down by her uncle to his farm in Virginia. Susannah never had a slave and her uncle's farm had many slaves. Susannah had her personnal slave, which was Bethlehem, and she tried to befriend her many times. She then persuaded Bethlehem to learn to read and write. Only Bethlehem knew that that was against the law and therefore Susannah had to persuade her. Over months Susannah kept it in her mind that she was going to runaway somtime soon but she never knew when that time was.

Susannah and Bethlehem didn't want to be classified by race or color. Susannah knew it was wrong and she wanted to run away up to her home, Vermont. On the day of Susannah's run away, she told Bethlehem that this was the day and that was when Bethlehem surprised Susannah by telling her that she was going to go with her, no matter what. But there was a secret kept between them. Bethlehem wanted to go to Canada which is what she pointed to when Susannah showed Bethlehem where Vermont was.

This story is definitely worth reading just to find out the personal lives of two very unique children with a very large dream. I definitely recommend this book to anyone out there and it should be read by many students and teachers alike. This story should only be read by older children though because it is confusing in the ways that it was written and all of the different points of view.