Fleeing To Freedom

When we leave our homes, permanently, we do so with mixed feelings.  We find ourselves experiencing a combination of excitement and anxiety.  We are starting over someplace new; even if it's in the same community or state.  If we have left one state or country, moving to another, everything is amplified.  To make the choice to relocate out of fear or to avoid further relentless persecution heightens every emotion.

For many the decision brings other hardships.  Even starting the journey is laden with peril.  Overground Railroad (Holiday House, January 7, 2020) written by Lesa Cline-Ransome with illustrations by James E. Ransome addresses these very real worries endured by those millions of people who were part of the Great Migration.  Left behind were their family, homes, and possessions too large to carry.  They ventured forth in hopes of a better life.

Some walked.
Some drove.
But we took the train north.
Me and Mama and Daddy got to the station
crack of dawn early
before anyone
could see us leave.
Daddy holding tight
to me with one hand
three tickets to New York in the other.

In this first passage urgency and determination envelope the narrator and her parents.  Bags and a shoebox packed with food accompany these three travelers.  They move to the rear of the train car for African American passengers bound for New York City.

Before arriving at the station their goodbyes are said in secret to an uncle and grandparents before the sun rises.  The child's parents are exhausted from picking cotton and working land they do not own.  As the girl, Ruth Ellen, looks out the train's windows, she can see others already picking cotton and working land they do not own.

At one stop so many others board the train with bags and boxes, the car is crowded to capacity.  People stand or sit on the floor.  Ruth Ellen and her father play games with cards.  Then she begins reading a book her teacher gave her on her last day of school, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass."  As the train travels through Virginia and toward Washington, D. C., the girl keeps reading.  She wonders about all the people squeezed into this car, believing they are going to a fresh start with more freedom.  

When the train crosses a border, the WHITES ONLY sign is removed by porters.  People can sit in any car they desire and move about the train.  Ruth Ellen and her parents wander down the aisles; the distinctions in amenities are staggering.  Geographical landmarks trigger a comparison in the girl's mind between her trip and that taken by Frederick Douglass.  The city lights flickering in buildings against the dark on their arrival are a reminder of others who looked to the North for freedom.


When children tell a story, they share their experiences openly with truth.  Readers will readily identify with every thought shared by Ruth Ellen.  Her voice through the writing of Lesa Cline-Ransome is clear, moving and descriptive.  We are fully aware of the family's life in the South and their train trip to the North with each tiny personal detail given to us by Ruth Ellen.  The inclusion of the conductor calling out each station stop brings us further into the story.  Here is a passage.

In our straight-back seats
when we finish with cards
Mama fusses in her purse
Daddy stares ahead
I take out the book
Teacher gave me.
The cover's worn,
pages too.
"Read to me, Ruthie," Mama says
and I do.
First the title,
"Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass."


The yellow sky, on the front of the dust jacket, as the sun rises at the station signals hope with the white birds flying to the right.  You can almost feel the hearts of Ruth Ellen and her parents swell with longing as the train curves around them and others waiting.  Ruth Ellen holds the shoebox packed with food by her grandmother and her father holds the three tickets which represent freedom.  To the left, on the back, on a light purple canvas is a portion and smaller version of an interior image.  The train is crossing the Delaware River surrounded by a pastoral countryside.  The text reads:

Making their way north aboard the Overground Railroad in
search of hope, freedom, and a better life.

On the book case artist, illustrator, James E. Ransome has placed an interior illustration signifying the end of one chapter in this family's life and the beginning of another.  On the opening and closing endpapers a large cotton plant with spread branches, ready for picking, is over four separate pictures depicting methods of travel taken by those migrating North.  These are powerful endpapers.

With a page turn the two-page picture for the title page gives us a view of a cotton field next to Ruth Ellen's home with the train moving across the horizon in the distance.  On the verso and dedication pages, James E. Ransome has placed in square frames on white, first, a visual of the railroad track and second, a single cotton boll on a stalk against brown earth and a blue sky.  Each image is rendered

with paper, graphite, paste pencils, and watercolors,

carefully placed for a realistic effect, historically and emotionally.  (One of the passengers on the train is reading a newspaper from Washington, D. C. dated May 15, 1939.)

Each two-page picture takes us back in time so we may comprehend.  In the faces of Ruth Ellen's parents, we see their quiet resolve.  On Ruth Ellen's face, we see a mixture of emotions as the trip progresses. 

One of my many favorite illustrations is of Ruth Ellen and her parents seated on the train.  They are occupying a single seat with Ruth Ellen next to the window, Mama in the middle and Daddy on the end of the seat closet to the aisle.  Mama is holding the shoebox on her lap.  Ruth Ellen and Daddy are playing the card game War using the top of the shoebox as a table.  In this scene we can see the beautiful blend of papers James E. Ransome uses throughout the book on their clothing and in the clothing of the other passengers seated behind them.


This exemplary tribute to those people part of the Great Migration is a book for all readers.  Overground Railroad written by Lesa Cline-Ransome with illustrations by James E. Ransome will supply understanding, generate discussions and create a thirst for more knowledge.  An Author's Note at the end provides further information.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Lesa Cline-Ransome has accounts on Facebook and Twitter.  James E. Ransome has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  At Penguin Random House you can view the stunning endpapers.  Perhaps you will find this article at History.com helpful.  Lesa Cline-Ransome dedicates the book to Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Listen For Hope

Bells are used for signals, requests, music, warnings and demands.  Ringing wakes us as an alarm when it's time to get up each morning.  Bells begin and end the day at schools and factories. (Did you ever notice how the same sound changes in meaning at the start and end of the day?)  The sound of a bell can announce our presence as visitors.  It can indicate the need for  ourhelp as customers.  Bells come in all shapes and sizes and their purpose is as varied.

The ringing of a bell should never represent for any individual the beginning of another day as a slave. In The Bell Rang (A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, January 15, 2019) written and illustrated by James E. Ransome we follow a family of slaves for eight days.  In those eight days there is a tragic sameness, astonishing strength and the glow of hope.

Monday
The bell rings,
and no sun in the sky.
Daddy gathers wood.
Mama cooks.
We eat.

As the child narrator, a young girl, continues, her parents and older brother each envelope her with affection; a hug, a kiss and a touch. They and the other slaves leave and walk to work in the fields as the overseer, riding on his horse, leads them.  All the younger children spend the day with Miss Sarah Mae.

On Tuesday the familial love is the same.  The backbreaking work continues.  The younger children play in safety.  Wednesday is different.

When Wednesday comes her brother Ben does not touch her or wave to her.  He kisses her on her check, hands her a doll he made from small twigs and fine cloth.  He whispers words in her ear before he joins his two friends, Joe and Little Sam.  All day the child and the doll, Miz Ida, are inseparable.

Sadness and cruelty fill the day on Thursday.  There is pain and tears and a gun in the overseer's hands.  Ben has run away with his friends, Joe and Little Sam.  Another day passes in sameness and silence.  On Saturday a shift settles over Daddy, Mama and their daughter.  A sudden arrival generates fear and more pain but also hope for one family.

On Sunday there is no bell.  Slaves gather to hear preaching down by the creek.  There are words, songs and prayers for freedom.  On Monday . . .


To measure this narrative through the days of the week James E. Ransome easily engages readers.  Those seven twenty-four hours periods mark all kinds of events universally for most people.  Using the same four sentences for most of the days does supply readers with a rhythm but also fashions a high contrast for those days when those phrases are not used or changed.  It allows us to feel the pain of loss, the pain of being left behind and the intense hope of freedom realized. With the younger sister as narrator we are deeply connected to this story.  Here is a passage after Ben has left.

Ben gone.
Joe and Little Sam all ran.
Mama cries
all the way to the field.
Daddy's face
looks all wrong
as he walks
with the other slaves.
Many with mad looks,
some with tears.


When we think of freedom many visual depictions come to mind.  Upon opening the dust jacket the blue-hued sky extends over the spine as does the darker golden yellow and rosy pink.  As our eyes move to the left, on the back, the rosy pink area is enlarged.  Two cabins, smoke curling from chimneys are shown there on a bit of green.  Another girl is running behind the two children shown on the front.  Surely children running without fear is a sign of freedom or the promise of freedom.

On the book case covered in a rich blue with a cloth spine is a single element.  In the upper, right-hand corner an embossed, foil swallow is in flight.  It is copper in color.

On the opening endpapers from the perspective of looking up we see a scene of daybreak sky in yellow, gray-blue and sky blue.  Clouds spread across a portion.  The bell is ringing.  Four swallows fly past.  On the closing endpaper higher in the clouds a single swallow flies against a vivid blue sky.  This is also the canvas of the Author's Note.

Rendered in acrylics the eloquent paintings of James E. Ransome summon understanding in readers.  From the ringing of the bell by the overseer on the initial title page to wood being chopped near a cabin with an extensive landscape in the background on the formal title page to the first intimate portrait of the family sitting in front of the fire eating their breakfast, we are taken back in time to another place.  The flow of the brush strokes, the use of light and reflected light, the gaze of the girl, the gentle touch of a brother's hand or the details in their dwelling all contribute to a near sensory experience for readers.

When featuring the parents in the morning or when they say good-bye to their daughter, James E. Ransome blends their actions as a partial overlay.  For many of the pictures they extend, page edge to page edge, on full pages.  Other images span two pages for emphasis.  Readers should take notice of the birds in flight over the gathered slaves on Sunday.

One of my many favorite illustrations is on a single page with a crisp white background.  It begins with Daddy and his arms wrapped about his daughter in a hug.  They are both smiling at each other.  Beneath this Mama is bending down to give her daughter a good-bye kiss on her forehead.  The father's left arm blends in with the mother's head and back.  It is a scene of love and strength.


You cannot read The Bell Rang written and illustrated by James E. Ransome without being deeply moved.  With each page turn the words and paintings take you into these eight days.  We get a real sense of family, the desire for freedom, the despair, fear and pain of enslavement and ultimately hope.  This book is highly recommendation for all collections, personal and professional.

To learn more about James E. Ransome, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  James E. Ransome maintains accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.

A Fire of Courage Burned Within

From the time they are a child their path is clear.  Each choice they make regardless of their circumstances is intended to keep them heading in the same direction.  For these people the journey is in service of others.  For these people help is given, without question, for the betterment of others; especially those lacking the same rights as others.

She lived for nearly a century.  Before She Was Harriet (Holiday House, November 7, 2017) written by Lesa Cline-Ransome with illustrations by James E. Ransome is a brilliant collaboration.  It is an eloquent portrait of a champion for American people. 

Here she sits

an old woman

tired and worn

her legs stiff

her back achy

In the years before this day when she is seated waiting, this woman, Harriet Tubman achieved remarkable triumphs for many people.  She changed lives, hundreds of lives.  As a suffragist she fought for the rights of women.  Her efforts were realized seven years after her death when women acquired the right to vote.

Prior to this time she led Union troops on a successful raid enabling more than seven hundred slaves to obtain their freedom.  On this night in June 1863 history was made on and along the Combahee River.  Her skill in navigating from the south to the north made her invaluable in obtaining information for the Union army as a spy during the Civil War.  Her knowledge of healing and natural remedies assisted her in her role as a nurse for soldiers.

In reading of Harriet bringing her own parents to freedom, escaping their master from the south into Canada, you know it was an event like no other.  The shared joy between the trio must have been immeasurable.  This is why they called her Moses.  She led one successful trip after another on the Underground Railroad.  

Known as Minty she worked as a slave in Maryland and also for other owners toiling in the fields.  She knew the sting of the lash.  As a child her given name was Araminta.  It was her father who taught her to survive in the woods and look to the constellations in the night sky for guidance. She was not born in freedom but every step she took was toward it.  

It is a poem.  It is a life story.  Milestones in this extraordinary woman's life are woven into a narrative of exquisite, descriptive respect by author Lesa Cline-Ransome.

As each layer builds backward from Harriet as an old woman we are acquainted with her many accomplishments beginning with her childhood.  Her strength and bravery inspire us all.  Lesa Cline-Ransome brings us full circle back to the elder Harriet.  The use of no punctuation means, to me, Harriet and the effects of her presence will always be with us.  Here is a passage.

Before she was an old woman
she was a suffragist
a voice for women
who had none
in marriages
in courts
in voting booths
before her voice became 
soft and raspy
it was loud
and angry
rising above injustice


Upon opening, unfolding, the matching dust jacket and book case first as a young girl on the right, looking to the stars, Araminta is learning.  These nocturnal pinpricks of light are a map in which she will be able to lead hundreds to new lives, free lives.  To the left, within a circle like the moon on the right, we see an older Harriet crossing a stream with slaves, leading them to safety.  Above the image are the words:

Suffragist * General * Union Spy
Nurse * Moses * Minty

Beneath the illustration is her name, Harriet Tubman.

The opening and closing endpapers are in the same shade of yellow as the title text and thin glowing line around the moon and the image on the back of the jacket and case.  James E. Ransome begins his visual storytelling with a train crossing a landscape and then with an image spanning two pages for the title.  Harriet Tubman is waiting on a bench outside a train depot.  Others are gathered either to board the train or bid travelers goodbye.

Each page turn is a two-page picture.  Regardless of the perspective our eyes are immediately drawn to Harriet.  James E. Ransome has masterfully captured her pure spirit of courage and compassion.  She was only five feet tall but her personality of perseverance is present in each of her capacities.  The facial expressions on Harriet are stunning.

One of my many favorite pictures is a night scene.  Harriet is kneeing on a hill overlooking a small community below her.  Trees and small buildings are visible.  Smoke rises from chimneys.  A few lights are glowing.  Her head is bowed in prayer beneath a full moon and a scattering of stars. Her body takes up nearly all of the left side.


The reverence author Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrator James E. Ransome feel for Harriet Tubman is clearly evident in the flawless blend of their beautiful words and art.  Every collection personal and professional needs a copy of Before She Was Harriet.  It is a moving read aloud.

To learn more about Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Lesa Cline-Ransome has written a blog post about this title.  You will want to read it.  At the publisher's website is a four page educator's guide.  At author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's site, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, you can view an interior image and read her post at Kirkus.

UPDATE:  Please follow this link to KidLit TV to hear Lesa Cline-Ransome read her book aloud while viewing her husband's remarkable illustrations.  This title is a 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book. 



Please take a few moments to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the titles selected by other bloggers this week participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

A Tree Travels

A week ago, Wednesday, November 28th, John Schumacher, teacher librarian and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read., Colby Sharp, fourth grade teacher and blogger at sharpread and David Rubel, author, historian and speaker, focused on a single significant book, The Carpenter's Gift: A Christmas Tale About The Rockefeller Center Tree (Random House, September 27, 2011).  Written by David Rubel with illustrations by Jim LaMarche this title depicts a beginning, a tradition continuing today, of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.  It is a story of the circle of giving.

I can't help but think a perfect companion to this title would be the newly released (October 30, 2012) The Christmas Tugboat:  How The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Came To New York City (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) written by husband and wife, George Matteson and Adele Ursone with paintings by James E. Ransome.  Narrated by the daughter of a New York Harbor tugboat captain we are given an intimate peek into a past memorable moment.

Sometime in the middle of the night, 
I wake to the ringing of my dad's alarm clock.

Normally her Dad would quietly get dressed and leave the house headed toward the harbor for his work, but on this day she and her Mom are going with him.  On this day the tugboat is heading up the Hudson River to bring back the Christmas tree for Rockefeller Center in New York City.  Through the darkness as the city sleeps they walk along the dock, boarding the tugboat with Mom tending the lines as she and her Dad go below to get the engine started.

Lines cast off, her Dad gently guides the tugboat away from the pier past the sights of the city.  Oatmeal breakfast in the pilothouse, storytelling, painting pictures as well as chores on board and even steering the tugboat herself, help the time to pass.  Near nightfall as they reach Stony Point, a huge barge appears laden with giant red ball ornaments, a truck and truck bed loaded with an enormous tree.

After securing the barge to the tugboat they begin the journey home, down the dark river navigating by buoys and lights on shore.  Dinner is eaten, the winter winds start to whistle but they are able to spend the night moored to an abandoned pier as planned. It seems as though her Mom has just finished singing her favorite barges song as they are lying in the bunks, when the rumble of the tugboat engine awakens them the next morning.

Traveling through the frosty air surrounded by the rose-colored dawn sky they get closer to their destination.  Approaching the George Washington Bridge, helicopters hoover noting their arrival.  Two police boats, a tour boat filled with school children and a fireboat escort them into the harbor. Her knowing Dad grants her a special honor until they dock beneath the Manhattan Bridge.  One final gesture of kindness completes this very special journey never to be forgotten by a girl, her Mom and her Dad, a New York Harbor tugboat captain.


Based upon a true story authors George Matteson and Adele Ursone bring an intimacy to this telling.  Specific sensory descriptions recall small segments of time; colder air in the engine room, shivering boat as the engine starts, the secure warmth of her Dad's embrace as she sits on his lap watching the river at night, the frosted branches on the tree at dawn.  Nearly poetic, often heartwarming details, bring the reader into the story.  Here are only a couple of examples.

Dad says the engine room is where you keep the horsepower,
but the pilothouse is where you keep the brainpower.

A half moon glows high in the sky.  Stars begin to appear around it, and a cold wind rises with the darkness.  The water is black, and the pinpoints of light on shore are so bright, they seem to be set right in the pilothouse windows.


When you open the jacket and cover, identically illustrated, the acrylic paintings of James E. Ransome reach out in warmth to the reader capturing the beginning on the front and the splendid ending on the back, the brightly lit Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center.  Opening and closing endpapers show the New York City skyline, buildings tall against a gray sky, snow falling as the tugboat heads up the river, the Statute of Liberty tiny in the distance.  A close-up of a bridge spans across the first two pages delegated for the title information tucked beneath on the right side with the tugboat chugging off the page.

The following two pages, for publication information and the dedication shows a segment of the family home, dawn breaking in the east. Throughout most of the book rich, colorful two-page panoramic views spread from edge to edge.  At times a closer, more personal view on a single page will be used with text framed on the opposite page.  Ransome's paintings beautifully portray and enhance the narrative.


The Christmas Tugboat:  How The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Came To New York City takes two very special days from a lifetime highlighting the extraordinary within the ordinary.  George Matteson and Adele Ursone give voice to their daughter's experience with a clear understanding of her memories.  James E. Ransome gives readers a pictorial perspective of those same memories.  The combination of the two is perfect.

Both George Matteson and James E. Ransome offer their comments at the story's end.


I believe both of these titles offer the opportunity for further investigations about, for example, Habit for Humanity, Rockefeller Center, the history of bridges in New York City or points of interest around and along the Hudson River.  Given the importance of pinecones in each I am reminded of the folktale from The Har(t)z Mountains in Germany, about the silver pinecones.    There is a silver pinecone on display in my own home year-round.