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CSK : Almost to Freedom
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From: Linnea Hendrickson <lhendr>
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 22:37:09 -0700
Many of us in New Mexico were thrilled when Vaunda Nelson?s Almost to Freedom was named a CSK honor book for its illustrations by Colin Bootman. I thought the pictures were very effective, but it was the writing that moved me most. I read the book to many elementary school classes, and it held every one of them spellbound. It is difficult to write about such intense events for young children and strike a balance between telling too much and glossing over hardships. I felt that this book got it just right. The danger in telling such a serious story through the voice of a doll would be in trivializing the events or making them overly sweet, pitfalls that Nelson avoids. In fact, the doll helps provide the necessary balance between distance and attachment. The plotting is exquisite, beginning and ending with the careful embroidery that made the doll?s face, and with two little girls loving and receiving the doll. The foreshadowing ? the overseer with his whip and the mother looking at the night sky singing, ?Steal away, steal away home?.? is also beautifully constructed.
The staccato language when Lindy and her mother are running through the night captures the sense of danger, the fear, and the difficulty of the escape. I love the lines where Lindy tells Sally (the doll), ??Don?t be worrin?, Sally. ? Mama say we be with Papa soon.? Soon don?t come real soon.? Then, when they are in the underground shelter and the woman hands Lindy a pillow, the doll says, ?Miz Rachel?s friend who worked in the big house told us about pillows, but I never seen one.? How much that tells us about Lindy?s quality of life! The part where the doll is left alone just before the end, worrying about her family and wondering if she?ll ever be found is profoundly moving. ?I know she ain?t comin? back. Can?t. The loneliness swallows me up.? And later, ?I get to thinkin? that I best stop hopin?.?
The story is told in the present tense. Perhaps only dolls are timeless and live in an unending present.
There is a wonderful historical note in the back, and the author?s story of seeing the doll (that we can all go to see in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe) that inspired the story. There are many possibilities for classroom extensions with this text. The snatches of songs can lead to singing the entire songs, and the
?stories about little critters foolin? big ones and about slaves outsmartin? massas? can lead to the study of folktale collections such as Virginia Hamilton?s The People Could Fly and Julius Lester?s retellings of Uncle Remus tales. Dolls could be studied and made. The Underground Railroad is a topic commonly studied ? part of the third grade curriculum in New Mexico.
Congratulations to the CSK committee for selecting so many wonderful books!
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 22:37:09 -0700
Many of us in New Mexico were thrilled when Vaunda Nelson?s Almost to Freedom was named a CSK honor book for its illustrations by Colin Bootman. I thought the pictures were very effective, but it was the writing that moved me most. I read the book to many elementary school classes, and it held every one of them spellbound. It is difficult to write about such intense events for young children and strike a balance between telling too much and glossing over hardships. I felt that this book got it just right. The danger in telling such a serious story through the voice of a doll would be in trivializing the events or making them overly sweet, pitfalls that Nelson avoids. In fact, the doll helps provide the necessary balance between distance and attachment. The plotting is exquisite, beginning and ending with the careful embroidery that made the doll?s face, and with two little girls loving and receiving the doll. The foreshadowing ? the overseer with his whip and the mother looking at the night sky singing, ?Steal away, steal away home?.? is also beautifully constructed.
The staccato language when Lindy and her mother are running through the night captures the sense of danger, the fear, and the difficulty of the escape. I love the lines where Lindy tells Sally (the doll), ??Don?t be worrin?, Sally. ? Mama say we be with Papa soon.? Soon don?t come real soon.? Then, when they are in the underground shelter and the woman hands Lindy a pillow, the doll says, ?Miz Rachel?s friend who worked in the big house told us about pillows, but I never seen one.? How much that tells us about Lindy?s quality of life! The part where the doll is left alone just before the end, worrying about her family and wondering if she?ll ever be found is profoundly moving. ?I know she ain?t comin? back. Can?t. The loneliness swallows me up.? And later, ?I get to thinkin? that I best stop hopin?.?
The story is told in the present tense. Perhaps only dolls are timeless and live in an unending present.
There is a wonderful historical note in the back, and the author?s story of seeing the doll (that we can all go to see in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe) that inspired the story. There are many possibilities for classroom extensions with this text. The snatches of songs can lead to singing the entire songs, and the
?stories about little critters foolin? big ones and about slaves outsmartin? massas? can lead to the study of folktale collections such as Virginia Hamilton?s The People Could Fly and Julius Lester?s retellings of Uncle Remus tales. Dolls could be studied and made. The Underground Railroad is a topic commonly studied ? part of the third grade curriculum in New Mexico.
Congratulations to the CSK committee for selecting so many wonderful books!
-- Linnea Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, NM Lhendr at unm.edu http://www.unm.edu/~lhendrReceived on Fri 05 Mar 2004 11:37:09 PM CST
