How would you escape slavery? Put yourself in the shoes of eleven-year-old Clara for a moment and think about what you would have the courage to choose.
Clara is a salve. She has been separated from her mother and has been brought into the Big House to work as a seamstress. When white men come to visit the plantation, their drivers sit in the kitchen and talk. They tell stories of a route that slaves could take to escape to the north if they only had a map to show them the way.
Using her scraps of material, Clara cleverly sews a map, piece by piece, that creates a picture of the escape route.
Clara is the first to use the map to find freedom but she leaves it behind so others may follow.
Based on a true story, this book is the winner of the International Literacy Association Award.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
Read Alikes: Barefoot by Pamela Duncan Edwards; Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter; Moses by Carole Boston Weatherford; Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson; Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine; Find the Light to Freedom by Shane W. Evans
********
As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation--and even of running away to freedom. Then she overhears two slaves talking about the Underground Railroad. In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land--a freedom quilt--that no master will ever suspect. (From the publisher)
40 pages Ages 7-10 978-0679874720
