School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-- Based on Harriet Jacobs's own autobiography, these so-called letters, written to lost relatives and friends, provide a microscopic look at what slavery meant for a young black female in the mid 1800s. The hope of freedom opens Harriet's story, as a dying mistress pledges to set the young slave free in her will. But broken promises abound in this slim volume. Harriet endures many hardships at the hands of her new owners and more struggles when she flees. Lost loves, sickness, motherly concerns for her two children and gentle observations on herself and those around her are combined with heavier comments on her slave condition. Thus, each letter pulsates with a rich vitality. The authentically re-created dialect is the book's strongest asset; readers will delight in phrases such as ``worry sticking to me like cockleburs.'' Although the letters end with Harriet's escape to the North, additional pages of straightforward biography complete the story. Readers will be fascinated with this opportunity to experience the day-to-day life of a girl caught up in the bonds of slavery. --Amy Nunley, Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lyons ( Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston ) imaginatively recreates the experiences of a 19th-century slave--the early deaths of her parents; the unwanted attentions of her master; her liaison with a somewhat more beneficent white man; and her devotion to the children who ensue, which led her to run away--in this searing epistolary work, based on and faithful to Jacobs's 1861 autobiography. Before attaining her freedom Jacobs endured seven years of confinement in a relative's storeroom. These missives to departed friends and relations not only bear sorrowful witness to this numbing captivity--``Time,'' one letter begins, ``is a whisper I cantstet no apostrophe hear''--but also form an eloquent testament to her unfettered spirit and a powerful attestation to the suffering and resilience of thousands of African American women. Words, Lyons imagines Harriet writing in a moment of despair, are only ``poor silent beggars that cant tell how I feel''; but her words paint a portrait that is immediate indeed. Lyons concludes with a summary of the remainder of Jacobs's life and an illuminating note that details her own meticulous methods of investigation and reconstruction. This powerful book stirringly celebrates the strength of the human spirit. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Lyons retains the facts and tone of Jacob's autobiography but tells the story through fictional letters written in dialect that draw the reader into the story. Harriet ran away from her mistress, hid in a crawl space above her grandmother's ceiling for seven years, and eventually escaped to the North, where she became active in the abolition movement. Lyons provides excellent notes and an extensive bibliography. Historical fiction at its best. From HORN BOOK 1992, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Based on Jacobs's autobiography and presented as letters she might have written from 1825, at age 12, until she escaped north in 1842, a moving evocation of the tragedies inflicted by slavery. Harriet pours out her story as letters to dear ones she has lost. She writes to her dead mother about the family's division after one mistress dies, failing to honor her promise to set Harriet free; to her father when she's denied permission to attend his burial; to the man she loves after he goes north, telling him of her decision to escape the attentions of her master by accepting those of a kinder white man who, though he later succeeded in freeing their children and sending them north, failed to ensure the education he promised them. Meanwhile, Harriet--setting a false trail--hid during the years her children grew from toddlers to young adults, in a tiny space in her grandmother's cabin, as she tells an uncle who's also escaped. The letters here end with her own journey north; a final chapter summarizes the sorrows of the rest of her long life, as well as her many achievements--notably writing and publishing, in 1861, a seminal book on the sexual abuse of slaves. As explained in an excellent note, even the misspellings here are authentic, modeled on real letters, including some from Harriet's brother. The style Lyons creates for Harriet--a luminous character, gentle and resolute--is graceful and direct. A compelling story, then, true in outline and in spirit. Bibliography; family tree; glossary. (Fiction. 12+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 7-12. For review see Focus on p.315.