Blog: Read Roger - The Horn Book editor's rants and raves (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Authors & Illustrators, Out of the Box, Great Ladies, Ellen Levine, Obituaries, Add a tag
Ellen Levine, award-winning children’s author and tireless advocate for social justice, has passed away. Here are some Horn Book reviews of her most influential works.
Blog: Read Roger - The Horn Book editor's rants and raves (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Authors & Illustrators, Recommended Books, Great Ladies, Ellen Levine, Reviews, Add a tag
Ellen Levine Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad; illus. by Kadir Nelson
40 pp. Scholastic 1/07 ISBN 978-0-439-77733-9 $16.99 g
(Primary, Intermediate)
Watch author Ellen Levine read from the 2008 Caldecott Honor book.
In a true story that is both heartbreaking and joyful, Levine recounts the history of Henry “Box” Brown, born into slavery. Henry works in a tobacco factory, marries another slave, and fathers three children; but then his family is sold, and Henry realizes he will never see them again. With nothing to lose, Henry persuades his friend James and a sympathetic white man to mail him in a wooden box to Philadelphia and freedom. Levine maintains a dignified, measured tone, telling her powerful story through direct, simple language. A note at the end explains the historical basis for the fictionalized story. Accompanying Levine’s fine, controlled telling are pencil, watercolor, and oil paint illustrations by Kadir Nelson that resonate with beauty and sorrow. When Henry’s mother holds him as a child on her lap, they gaze out at bright autumn leaves, and the tenderness is palpable, even as she calls to his attention the leaves that “are torn from the trees like slave children are torn from their families.” There is no sugarcoating here, and Henry is not miraculously reunited with his wife and children; however, the conclusion, as Henry celebrates his new freedom, is moving and satisfying.
Ellen Levine A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II
260 pp. Putnam 10/95 ISBN 0-399-22638-9 18.95
(Older)
“After Pearl Harbor, the teachers would never say we were American citizens. Not one of them.” Since the 1988 Civil Liberties Act authorized redress payments for the surviving Japanese Americans evacuated to World War II internment camps, several children’s books have recounted this sorry episode in American history. Ellen Levine adds substantially to our understanding of the human experience of citizens suddenly made outcasts. Her carefully constructed account is based on in-depth interviews with thirty-five individuals who were children or teenagers when the bombing of Pearl Harbor dramatically altered their lives. Their recollections are broken into chronological and topical chunks interspersed with the author’s explanations of wartime events and camp life. These personal stories of displacement form a powerful sense of the pain and injustice rendered. The emotional resonance of the personal histories, along with the detailed information about camp life, politics, and postwar events, makes the book a rich resource. The drabness of the black-and white photographs is the only detraction from this compelling presentation. Appended material includes a glossary, a chronology, acronyms, a map, biographies, a bibliography, and an index.
Ellen Levine Darkness over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews
164 pp. Holiday 3/00 ISBN 0-8234-1447-7 18.95
(Middle School)
Ellen Levine’s account rescues Denmark’s heroic role in saving its Jewish population during the Holocaust from becoming a cliché. Debunking the romantic myth that everyone in Denmark wore a Star of David when the Germans demanded it of the Jewish population (a story that Levine says never happened), Levine concentrates her energies on the true-life dramas of twenty-one people she interviewed. At the time of the Nazi takeover of Denmark in 1940, several of them were as young as two years old, none older than twenty-eight. Their stories alternate with the history of the war as it affected Denmark and the rest of Europe. In a moving preface that acknowledges Levine’s ultimate inability to answer the question “Why did the Danes act the way they did?” she
Blog: A Garden of Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ellen Levine, Elroy Freem, Add a tag
Traveled West in a Covered Wagon answers 31 questions that make up 31 chapters in this book.
Examples of questions are: What was the Oregon Territory? What was a wagon train? How far would you travel in a day? What kinds of clothes did people wear?
Each answer is explained fully with illustrations to match the subject.
As an adult reviewer there were many things I did not know about traveling west in a covered wagon. For example how they crossed a river, or how far they traveled in a day.
There is a nostalgia sometimes about the past, especially the time period of pioneer's, cowboy's, and mountain men. Yet, by reading about these people we come to understand that they were hardy, bold, adventurous folk; yet they were not without faults or troubles.
One of my favorite subjects to read about is the Old West and this book satisfied even me!
Published by Scholastic 1992
80 pages
For ages 7 and up
Non-fiction/Old West/19th Century/Pioneer
Link @ Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/You-Traveled-West-Covered-Wagon/dp/0590451588/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337269314&sr=8-1
Paperback $6.99
Link @ Barnes and Nobles:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-you-traveled-west-in-a-covered-wagon-ellen-levine/1100417987?ean=9780590451581
Paperback $6.29
Blog: Lori Calabrese Writes! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ellen Levine, NonFiction Monday, Kadir Nelson, Henry's Freedom Box, Add a tag
Henry's Freedom Box (Caldecott Honor Book)
Author: Ellen Levine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publisher: Scholastic Press; January, 2007
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
This Caldecott Honor Book is the daring true story of former Virginia slave Henry "Box" Brown. Born a slave, Henry and his siblings worked in the "big house" for his master -- who, on his deathbed, gave Henry to his son. During the years he worked for the son in his tobacco warehouse, Henry met and married another slave, with whom he had three children. One day while Henry was working, his family was sold in the slave market and they disappeared down the road. After weeks of despair, Henry had an idea while moving a crate. He would mail himself to freedom "to a place where there are no slaves!" He travels by horse-drawn cart, steamboat, and train before his box is delivered to the Philadelphia address of an abolitionist doctor friend. Award winning illustrator Kadir Nelson's realistic paintings bring Henry's sad experiences to life and reveals the lengths a man would go to for freedom. This book will appeal to the young reader and encourage older readers to learn more about the life of courageous Henry "Box" Brown on their own. Use this beautifully illustrated picture book to help children understand the underground railroad, and the harsh realities of slavery.
Would you have yourself crated up and shipped from slavery to liberty?
Hop over to Anastasia Suen's picture book of the day blog for the Nonfiction Monday roundup!