From Publishers Weekly
Lasky (The Night Journey) again combines suspenseful fiction with history as she intersects the lives of two 19th-century adolescent girls: Afrika, a run-away slave from a Virginia plantation, and Lucy, a restless young socialite from Boston. While Afrika travels the Underground Railroad, dodging slave catchers and their hounds, Lucy prepares for her sister's upcoming wedding to a prominent New Yorker even though she would rather be helping her grandfather with his abolitionist efforts. The paths of the two girls converge when Lucy discovers Afrika hiding in her grandfather's house after "Pap" has died from a stroke. Together, the two girls embark on a dangerous journey to the Canadian border. Both Afrika and Lucy are, from the beginning, admirable, likable heroines, but the true colors of other characters are not revealed until long after the girls' daring trip. Lasky clearly illustrates the tyranny of slave masters, the support of slave labor in the North, the restrictions placed on 19th-century women and the philosophies of such revolutionaries as Robert Gould Shaw, Abigail Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson (each of whom plays a minor role in this riveting drama). Telling her story with sensitivity and flair, the author amply fulfills the goal she states in an afterword: to write "within the structures of logic and judicious imagination." Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-An excellent work of historical fiction, carefully researched and poignantly told. In Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp in 1858, 14-year-old Afrika defies Harriet Tubman and chooses to stay with her dying newborn baby while the others continue to travel north. Afterwards, she resumes her flight from slavery to freedom alone. Meanwhile, Lucy Bradford of Boston finds the hoopla surrounding her older sister's wedding a total bore. She looks for some excitement and finds more than she bargained for when she discovers the young slave hiding in her grandfather's house. Suddenly, Lucy's predictable life is turned upside down as she helps the girl continue north. After Afrika reaches the safety of Canada and Lucy returns home, the two write to one another regularly. Finally, five decades later, Lucy welcomes Afrika to her Boston home. The two main characters are resilient, appealing, and complex. As the story switches back and forth from one to the other, the inevitability of their encounter and readers' curiosity about the circumstances under which this meeting will occur create a page-turning scenario. The grim realities of slavery are unforgettably revealed through Afrika, and the contrast between her life and Lucy's is starkly and effectively conveyed. The detailed settings add to the authenticity of the telling. Young people who have enjoyed Jennifer Armstrong's Steal Away (Orchard, 1992) will find Lasky's novel another thought-provoking look at this tumultuous period in U.S. history.
Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
