School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6Clotee is an orphan living on the plantation of "Mas' Henley" and "Miz Lilly." Her owners have put her to work fanning Miz Lilly and her young son William during tutoring sessions. William may not be keen to learn, but Clotee is. She has learned to read while looking over the boy's shoulder and eventually she teaches herself how to write. She practices her newfound skills by writing in a makeshift, secret diary, which is found by William's new tutor. Luckily, he turns out to be an abolitionist. Through his work, Clotee helps some of her friends escape to the North, but she herself chooses to stay behind on the plantation as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Clotee is such a vibrant, fully rounded character that it is almost painful to think of her left on the plantation while her friends and fellow slaves go to freedom. McKissack brings Clotee alive through touching and sobering details of slave life, told in such a matter-of-fact way that their often brutal nature is made abundantly clear. However, this is in no way a depressing book. In fact, it is an inspiring look at a young girl coming of age in terrible circumstances who manages to live life to the fullest.Melissa Hudak, Northern Illinois Medical Center, McHenry, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Each of the fictional diaries recounts a year in the life of an eighteenth-century girl. Thirteen-year-old Hattie records her family's journey on the Oregon Trail as part of a covered-wagon train. Clotee, a twelve-year-old slave girl, meditates on the meaning of the word 'freedom' and learns about the Underground Railroad. The girls' voices are believable, and the stories are affecting. A historical note concludes each book. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-6. Frightened by tales of Indian raids and the Donner Party, Hattie in Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie finds life along the trail different from her expectations, though no less eventful. Children wander off and are lost, people drown when the wagons cross rivers, and several are fatally poisoned when Hattie mistakes water hemlock for parsnip. Sometimes mistaken, too, in her initial judgments of people, Hattie still makes friends along the trail, and her experiences broaden her outlook. Rich with details of pioneer life, this fictional diary has a good deal of truth in it. Clotee in Picture of Freedom writes her diary secretly, since "slaves aine s'posed to know how to read and write." Clotee has an extended "family" of people she loves, other slaves who shield each other as best they can from the capricious harshness of plantation life. When a tyrannical overseer and an abolitionist disguised as a tutor come to Belmont Plantation, the stage is set for drama. Children will find Clotee a sympathetic narrator whose insights will take them beyond the stereotypical views of plantation life. Each author brings to her book a wealth of background research as well as a strong heroine and an involving story. Each book ends with an "epilogue" summarizing the girl's adult life as though she were a real person. McKissack's book begins, "During the summer of 1939, when Clotee Henley was ninety-two years old, she was interviewed by Lucille Avery, a student at Fisk University." The unfortunate effect of these epilogues is to blur fiction and history in readers' minds. A more useful addition is an illustrated section discussing American life in the period of the novel. --Carolyn Phelan