Letters from a Slave Boy: The Story of Joseph Jacobs
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About this ebook
Like his mother and grandmother before him, Joseph Jacobs was born into slavery. Joseph lives with his grandmother and sister in North Carolina, but he has not seen his mother for more than seven years. Unbeknownst to Joseph, his mother, Harriet, has been hiding from her owner in the attic of the house that Joseph lives in. But when Harriet's hiding place is in danger of being revealed, she is forced to flee north to safety only moments after being reunited with her family.
Devastated by losing his mother for the second time, Joseph begins to ponder the nature of the world he lives in. Soon Joseph, seeking freedom and a place where he can be himself, follows his mother north. As he searches for answers, Joseph experiences life in Massachusetts, California, Australia, and aboard a whaling ship—but there’s no place where Joseph feels that he can truly be free.
Mary E. Lyons
Mary E. Lyons is the author of many books for children and young adults, including Roy Makes a Car, Feed the Children First, Dear Ellen Bee, Letters from a Slave Girl, and Sorrow’s Kitchen. She has received the Golden Kite Award and a Horn Book Fanfare for Letters from a Slave Girl, a 2005 Aesop Award for Roy Makes a Car, and a Carter G. Woodson Award for Sorrow’s Kitchen. A teacher and former librarian, she lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can learn more about her at LyonsDenBooks.com.
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Reviews for Letters from a Slave Boy
22 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Letters from a Slave" girl made learning and reading about slavery interesting.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harriot Jacobs is born into slavery in the antebellum South. This story details her early life and her eventual escape to the free North. So desperate is Harriet Jacobs for freedom, she lives in a tiny attic space for years rather than return to her cruel owners. The most striking thing about this book is its narrative voice. The story is told from the perspective of Harriet Jacobs, in fictional letters she writes to important people in her life, both dead and alive. The writing captures the unique cadence, word choice and sentence structure of a black slave in the South in a way that makes Harriet Jacobs seem all the more alive and real. An appendix with photos and documents of the historical Harriet Jacobs increases the realistic setting and characters.