henry's freedom box. ellen levine. kadir nelson.

i purchased henry's freedom box from the beale library book sale.  i bought it because it was a caldecott winner and only 50 cents. in retrospect, i feel that the library should have charged more for it.

i didn't read it immediately and then while coming across it while packing, decided to save it to read for black history month.

it is a beautiful story based on the actual events of henry "box" brown's escape to the north.  i had never heard of brown prior to this book and was impressed yet sadden by the risk he took for freedom.

the book opened with henry as a child, not knowing his age because he was a slave.  his master died and he was separated from his family.  with his new master, he found a wife and they had children.  then one day, his wife and children were sold.  henry was devastated and decided to escape to freedom in the north.  his plan was to mail himself.  thankfully his plan was successful and he made it to philadelphia.  his first day of freedom then became his birthday.

the afterword explained in that brown mailed himself from richmond, virginia and his journey was twenty-seven hours.  his story was shared in newspapers in europe and america. it amazed me that his plan worked, it seemed too outrageous but then again any risk is worth it if the end result is freedom.

although it ends with henry gaining freedom, i was still sadden by the fact that brown had lost his family.  henry lost not only his wife and children but his mother and siblings as well.  it still saddens and outrages me that  slaveowners could take separate child and parent without an remorse.  it is so cruel and inhumane.

i was appreciative that the book shed light on the dividing of the family unit.  it included many aspects of slavery, even though a children's novel, henry's freedom box gave an honest portrayal of slavery.  it did not shy away from the mention of abusiveness and violence of slaveowners.  and interesting enough, many of the themes presented reminded me of the toni morrison beloved.  in beloved, the division is family is the cause for their escape to freedom.  also henry's admiration of the free bird he saw on the day he left his mother reminded me of the envy of the rooster's freedom from beloved, both demonstrating the low status of slaves.  another theme that the book did not ignore was the willingness of slaves to harm themselves in

hopes of freedom.  henry burning his hand to help him escape, and the act of

running away itself.  slavery diminished the human spirit so individuals did all they could to be free and to feel and be treated as human.  

i all got all this from it and though i did not go into as deep a conversation with my brother when we read this, we did discuss some of the themes.  he enjoyed the book because it a a great story.  but it also brought up some questions about slavery on his end, which we discussed. and this is why henry's freedom box is a great story, it is an engaging story but provokes kids to think about slavery in a different way than just something they learn about in school.

oh and as mentioned before, this is a caldecott medal winner, here are my favorite illustrations:  

beloved. toni morrison. (111)

i read toni morrison's "beloved" because it is on flavorpill's 30 before 30 list.  i have to admit, at first i was weary because of the ghost and supernatural occurances in 124.  i am not one for ghost stories but it turned out to be a tragic yet beautiful story of endurance. 

"beloved" is the tale of a family and community coping with a tragedy and the appearance of a mystery woman.  the tragic event was when slaveowners found escaped slave sethe (the protagonist) to return her to the farm and in an attempt to keep her children safe, she kills her infant daughter.  sethe is jailed and the slaveowner frightened by the sight leaves her alone.  this infant daughter haunts her house and the community and then comes back in the form of an actual person, beloved.  

infanticide is a horrible crime yet is justifiable considering the horrors of slavery.  i might sound like a horrible person but i understand why sethe killed her baby.  better for that baby to die at the hands of her mother than later in life by her slaveowner or the clan.  also better to avoid a life of abuse and treatment like an animal.  actually as demonstrated in paul d's (an old friend of sethe who becomes her lover) story about how he was jealous of a rooster when he realized it was more free than him.  its horrible to imagine any situation in which a human is treated less than an animal but sadly this was how the american institution of slavery was.

in my post for art spiegelman's "maus", i discussed how "maus" allows readers to truly understand a part of history that one would only know due to history books but not as a human experience.  the same can be said for "beloved".  in school, we learn about slavery yet we have have no idea what it was really like.  in history books there are excerpts from slave narratives but unless you read one it's can not grasp the full experience of a slave.  furthermore, i would assume american textbooks present slaveflaw oils not be complete honesty about slavery and present it in a sympathetic light because american society would not want its student to see its country negatively.  to get a honest perspective one has to look elsewhere. "beloved" allows the reader to do just that, it puts things into perspective.  

for example, i knew that slaves were separated from their family members; families torn apart because they were viewed as property but it was different when i read about it in "beloved".  reading about baby suggs, sethe's mother-in-law, trying to find out which farms her children were taken to or how paul d was  amazed and envious when he met generations of black families that were able to stay together, framed it in a ways i could relate.  but the best example was paul d thought that sethe love for her daughter denver was "risky":

for a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much is dangerous . . . the best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a bit, so when they broke it back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you'd have a little love left over for the next one.

it sad to imagine a world in which affection and love for your child was

dangerous because at any moment they could be taken away from you.  and yes all parents fear losing a child but for slaves it was a fact of life. furthermore, imagine your family bonds not being respected because you were not viewed as a person.  family relations were ignored because slaves were not viewed as having them because they were property.

another aspect of "beloved" that left an impression on me was the hopelessness of slavery and how individuals coped with it.  all the characters had to deal with it but i believe baby suggs was the best example because she was free and yet did not find happiness.  her son, sethe's husband, had bought her freedom but even than it did not result in peace for her. baby suggs was a spiritual leader but after the tragedy with sethe, her spirit was broken.  like she told her friend stamp when he asked why she didn't preach anymore and accused her of punishing god, she replied "not like He punish me".  it's hard to believe in a god that does not stop the suffering in one's life.  i have always said that i could never be job so i undertstand baby sugg's frustration with god.  as a result of her hopelessness, baby suggs went to bed and stayed there, her "wish was to consider what in the world was harmless" and she did that by thinking about colors because they never harmed anyone.  it was sad but beautiful how she found comfort in colors, she still had hope even if she didn't have faith in god.

another example of this hopelessness was the chain gang that paul d worked on.  it was explained that the gang would sing as they worked:

singing love songs to Mr. Death, they smashed his head.  more than the rest, they killed the flirt whom folks called Life for leading them on.  making them think the next sunrise would be worth it . . .

morrison's analogy of life as a flirt is quite clever though sad.  it's one thing to not have faith in god but quite another to not have faith in life.  

though "beloved" demonstrated the horrors of slavery, the lesson to be learn is to not hold on to the past.  (this is also the same lesson of "the great gatsby" which is also on the 30 before 30 list. hmmmm).  as explained before, sethe's dead daughter comes back to life as beloved and at first sethe is happy because it gives her the opportunity to right her wrong.  however, even though sethe wa regretful and tried to give beloved the love she needed, in the end, beloved destroyed her.  and that is how it is in life, if you cling to the past it will ruin you (like seen in "gatsby").  instead one must accept their past, mistakes and all, and continue to life on.  one can not let tragedy stop them.  an individual must learn to endure the pain that life can be at times.

i wonder if this is the one of the overall lesson of the flavorpill list?  so far two books about not holding onto the past.  but regardless, "beloved" was a wonderful novel and should be read regardless of your age.