Description
One title in Simon & Schuster's "Ready-to-Read" nonfiction series, this early chapter book teaches readers about the enslaved childhood and free adult life of Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth. The story stresses the impact on this young child of being sold multiple times to different masters and being abused physically and mentally by most of them. When a change in the law made all New York slaves free, Isabella changed her name to Soujourner Truth to reflect her intention to travel all over the country and tell the truth everywhere she went. Not being allowed to go to school or to learn to read as a child, Isabella remained illiterate her whole life, though that did not stop her from proclaiming her message of equality for blacks and women; it did not even stop her from writing a book about her life. Merchant tells of Truth meeting Frederick Douglass, as well as her famous "Ar'n't I a woman?" speech to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. There is nothing remarkable about Julia Denos's illustrations, rendered primarily in earth tones, but they do help to tell the story of "the Libyan Sibyl."
Details
Author: Peter Merchant
Binding Type: Paperback
Fiction/Non-Fiction: Non-Fiction
Leveled Group:J-K
Age Level: 6-8
Grade: 1st - 2nd