Moses by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Kadir Nelson
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What We're Reading:
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“Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom” by Carole Boston
Weatherford, illus. by Kadir Nelson (Jump at the Sun/ Hyperion Books,
0786851759, $15.99) This picture-book version of the life of Harriet Tubman, winner of the 2007 Coretta Scott King Illustration Award, uses quietly striking painted illustrations and unusual typography to tell a story both about Tubman’s journey to freedom and about her relationship with God. Starting the day before she leaves her place as a slave on a Maryland plantation, the book follows Harriet on her first dangerous trip north as she travels at night and sleeps rough in the woods. The shadowy pictures on these pages are washed in secret blues and greens and lined with sundown yellow. Each step along the way, Harriet prays and hears God speak to her in return: this supportive heavenly voice is depicted in large capitals that whisper mightily across the book’s pages and sometimes weave, wave, and wind about the pictures. At her lowest point, when Harriet collapses with torn and bloody feet, the words encircle her where she has fallen; and when she hides for days inside a cramped potato hole, the words expand to fill the tiny space and give her hope. After a journey of many miles, Harriet arrives to the free soil of Philadelphia and to a page awash in gentle sunlight. But very soon, pulled by her love for her family in the South and heartened by God’s voice, she goes back into the dark--back nineteen more times--to guide hundreds of captive people out from slavery. This moving and beautifully pictured narrative is followed by a concise biography of Tubman’s life, which serves as a capstone to Weatherford and Nelson’s carefully crafted tribute to the life of an almost legendary American hero. (For ages 4 to 8) Review by Mark David Bradshaw, February 13, 2007 |
