Two By Three By Two And A Half Feet

Meeting a person from the past for the first time in a children's picture book is a gift to be enjoyed and shared.  When this person has an astonishing accomplishment attached to their life, it makes this encounter even more relevant.  Your sense of gratitude to the author and illustrator for this book, for their work on this book, is enormous.

My first lasting memory of Henry Box Brown is when I read Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad (Scholastic Press, January 1, 2007) written by Ellen Levine with illustrations by Kadir Nelson.  Kadir Nelson was awarded a Caldecott Honor award in 2008 for his masterful use of pencil, watercolor, and oil in his artwork.  My next unforgettable introduction to this remarkable human being is in Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself To Freedom (Candlewick Press, April 14, 2020) written by Carole Boston Weatherford with illustrations by Michele Wood. You cannot read the words in these narrative six-line poems and look at these pieces of artwork without pausing at each one, visibly moved.

The book begins with powerful words written by Henry Box Brown from his Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown.  They speak of him born into slavery in a land which has documented all are to have lives of liberty.  In the first poem

WIND
As autumn breeze blows maple leaves
While I sit on my mother's lap.
Slavery is a cruel wind, she says,
Sweeping children away from parents,
Scattering families far and wide.
She shivers and holds me close.

the words of Henry Box Brown are echoed.  The accompanying illustration to this and the next poem, WORK, is a stunning scene of Henry, his mother and another brother, together beneath tree branches with drifting autumn leaves.

Cruelty delivered to other blacks on other plantations are told to Henry and his brothers.  By the time he is fifteen, Henry is taken from his family to work in a tobacco factory in Richmond, Virginia.  Here, among lots of people, evidence of slavery is seen everywhere.  Henry speaks of Nat Turner, rules, written and unwritten, and horrible beatings by factory overseers.  We learn of the planting, harvesting and delivery of tobacco, and of the discovery of brightleaf by an enslaved blacksmith, Stephen, in 1839.

Joy comes into Henry's life with his wife Nancy and their children, but it is not easy for them.  The constant fear of permanent separation hangs over them.  Nancy and the children are sold more than once but Henry figures out a way to have them near him.  He does so more than once.  A fourth child will soon be born.  Henry looks at Richmond, a hub of transportation, and dreams of freedom.  In an act of heinous inhumanity, Nancy and the children are taken to be sold.

Henry finds solace in his church and with friends.  Softly spoken words of an underground railroad give Henry courage to form a plan.  Again, trusted men assist Henry.  Henry is now inside a box three feet long, two feet wide and a little more than two and a half feet deep.

Unfortunately, as the box is moved from one form of transportation to another, the movers fail to observe This Side Up written on the side of the box.  At one point, Henry faints from the pain of his body pushing against his head.  After more than twenty-seven hours, Henry is a free man.

In the subsequent years, Henry deals with the dilemma of finding and buying freedom for his wife and children.  Henry wants his story to be shared, but in the midst of his panorama presentations he must leave the United States to save his life.  In England Henry shifts his persona in performances involving magic.  Happiness descends on Henry again and after twenty-five years he returns to North America to live out his life.


It's Henry's voice in these poems written with meticulous care and research by Carole Boston Weatherford that pierces your soul with their clarity.  All the poems, with the exception of one with six words, have six lines.  This is done with intention by Carole Boston Weatherford as a reflection of the six sides of a box.  The inclusion of special details gives readers a real, sensory portrait of Henry's life.  Here is another poem.

HEAVEN
For one last glimpse of my loved ones, I watch
The slave chain pass, bound for North Carolina.
Father! Father! my child yells from a wagon.
I see my wife, grab her hand, and walk four miles with her.
We shall meet in heaven, I whisper.  Then she is gone.
Lord, what more have I to lose?


The design and layout of the open and matching dust jacket and book case depict the confines of Henry's life and his success at freedom.  Each of the four featured images represents a critical point in his journey.  In an illustrator's note Michele Wood says:

The palette I chose includes blue, green, pink, red, and neutrals, which are colors of the 1800s.

To the left, on the back of the jacket and case, a rich deep, almost purple blue, provides a canvas.  In the center a black rectangle is a place for one of the poems.  Within the pages its title, not shown here, is COURAGE.

The opening and closing endpapers are black. The first poem of six words forms the number six and is titled GEOMETRY.  It appears prior to the title page and an illustration of Henry, as an adult, on the left.  This particular illustration is formed from smaller box shapes.

The illustrations, single-page pictures, framed and unframed, single and portions of the next page visuals, and vertical panels rendered in mixed media transport readers into a heart-wrenching past, but also supply us with hope held in a multitude of hearts.  Each image is layered with textures, color and emotion found in facial features and body postures.  Every detail holds meaning.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is when Nancy and Henry know they are spending their last moments together.  It is in the interior of their home.  Blue is used prominently.  Henry, on the right, is bent and holding his wife.  Nancy, on his left, is reaching into his embrace, arms wrapped around him.  Her dress flows behind her in a quilt-like pattern of checks in cream and others with a white flower on blue.  Two windows, like stained-glass, showcase symbolic elements.  Both Henry and Nancy have their eyes closed to hold in the memory of this moment.


This book, Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself To Freedom written by Carole Boston Weatherford with illustrations by Michele Wood, is a book to be widely read and often.  These poems and artwork are an impressive achievement in conveying not only a single life, but the time in which it was lived. At the close of the book are pages titled:  Timeline, Bibliography, A Note From The Illustrator and A Note On Numbers And Language.  I highly recommend this title for your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Carole Boston Weatherford and Michele Wood and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names.  Carole Boston Weatherford has accounts on Facebook and Twitter.  Michele Wood has an account on Twitter.  Michele Wood is featured on author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  Candlewick Press has designed a Teacher Tip Card linked here.  At Penguin Random House you can view interior pages.  I encourage you to take a few moments to listen to Carole Boston Weatherford reading a poem from this title.



Update:  This video was released on June 19, 2020.  The illustrator speaks about the book.