Trees are so much a part of our daily lives, whether we take them for granted or find ourselves fighting for their survival: so it is perhaps unsurprising that there are many stories from all over the world that feature trees, woods or forests as a central theme or ‘character’… … Continue reading ...
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Award-winning author Jerdine Nolen‘s picture books often tell stories that blend fantasy and realism in an unsettling way that delights young readers and fires their imaginations, from her first book Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm, which was made into a … Continue reading ...
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By: Shadra Strickland,
on 2/16/2011
Hear Jerdine Nolen talk about her middle grade book,
ELIZA’S FREEDOM ROAD, illustrated by yours truly!
By: Betsy Bird,
on 1/10/2011
Name me all the films you can that involve slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Okay then, I’ll make it easy on you. Name me a single film, just one, that involves slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Crazy, isn’t it? Here we have what must be one of the most heroic and harrowing real life escape stories in the history of our country, and Hollywood can’t be bothered to put a single such tale to celluloid. Now in the world of children’s literature, The Underground Railroad is a common topic to write on. Books about it abound, though interestingly enough there isn’t a single Underground Railroad novel that eclipses all the others. Maybe that’s why folks keep writing them. The latest I’ve seen recently is Eliza’s Freedom Road. It’s penned by the former picture book author Jerdine Nolen and features a very basic, very straightforward story of one girl escaping to freedom in Canada with some help. If you are looking for a good introductory novel that introduces not just the concept of slavery but also the definition of what The Underground Railroad even was, this slim little book may prove your best chance to do so. It covers familiar ground but reaches a slightly younger audience.
Twelve-year-old Eliza is on her own. No mother. No father. Her mother, you see, was recently sold away to another state, so Eliza spends her days with Abby the cook. She has her mother’s stories, sewn into patches on a special quilt, and that comforts her but it’s not enough. Eliza’s greatest fear is that she might get sent away too, a fear that is more than justified due to the nasty looks she gets from her master. Years ago her mistress taught Eliza to read and write and now relies on the girl to read to her from the newspaper and books. When the chance to accompany her mistress to Maryland comes up, Eliza leaps at the chance. Once there, she finds that there come opportunities in a person’s life to escape into the unknown. Eliza is ready to take that chance, and she has a woman by the name of Harriet Tubman to help her out. Backmatter includes an Author’s Note, Notes on the Stories, a Bibliography, and a long and detailed list of useful websites.
A couple months ago I was working in my children’s room when I got a request to host a small group of Boy Scouts on one of our late nights. The boys were learning about tall tales so I was asked to read some aloud to them. I selected a variety of tall tale picture books, amongst them Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen. When I gave a quickie synopsis of the books I’d chosen and asked the boys which one I should read, they unanimously requested Nolen’s book. And read it to them I did, though the book turned out to be surprisingly long. The author had packed in a lot of text and a lot of descriptions. Halfway through I couldn’t help but think that clearly her heart was on writing something longer, like a novel. So I wasn’t surprised to see Eliza’s Freedom Road come out with the selfsame author’s name on the cover not long after. What did surprise me was that she had decided to go with a diary format. This seemed like a bizarre choice. After all, this was an auth
By: Shadra Strickland,
on 9/16/2010
My cover art for ELIZA’S FREEDOM ROAD, AN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD DIARY, by Jerdine Nolen has been unveiled. Here is the final jacket:
Krista V., our designer, did a fantastic job with the diary concept. My original idea shows the heroine’s quilt turning into a landscape. Once you read the book, you’ll get it 
I’m bummed that sales didn’t go with the full illustration because I was really proud of it, but at the end of the day, I think this one works well too and immediately sells the idea of an aged diary. Too bad we couldn’t do a double cover with the fully illustrated case and a $$ die-cut jacket $$. Maybe for the pb 
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I hope you read the book when it comes out. Jerdine Nolen is one of my favorite writers and I am honored to grace the cover and pages of one of her books.
Thanks for pointing out this amazing book and also for highlighting the detail of the cover! It is wonderful! This one’s going into my personal collection as well as my school’s library.
brenda
Ooooooooh.
May I have that cover as a poster, please, cover gods? Thankyouverymuch.
Ha! Thanks so much for talking up the original cover and yes, Tanita, you can find the cover as a print in my etsy shop
This sounds like a very interesting book for young readers and one I am considering getting for a niece.
The quilt cover is so wonderful I can only ask what was the publisher thingking by not using it.
Year ago, the Folk Art Museum here in NY had a exhibit of quilts made by women slaves. They were magnificent. The quilts depicted family history, their daily lifes, birth, deaths, everything, even the underground railroad was there sometimes as a symbol showing the way to go, to indicate a safe house and who among them had decided to runaway – all in little pieces of fabric they put together. What creative talents they were.
That is what this cover reminds me of. Hopefully they will go back to it.
That ARC cover image is gorgeous. I echo the call for a poster – I’d love one! As for the book, my kids are always needing historical fiction to read, so this is definitely going on my order list.
The ARC cover is BEAUTIFUL! I hope they use it for the paperback.
I had the same kind of confusion about the Underground Railroad when I was a kid. Maybe it would have helped if there were some movies about it. So odd that there aren’t any!
I’m hoping our local library has this title now that I’ve read about it here. It makes me wonder if anyone has ever done any sort of complication and/or analysis of exactly how many children’s titles there are about the underground railroad. It could be interesting to compare the different ways that authors choose to present the story. Thanks for the brain food!