Henry's Freedom Box (by Ellen Levine)

When Henry is young, his master dies and he is separated from his mother. Put to work in a tobacco factory, he marries and has a family of his own. After his wife and family are sold away from him, he comes up with an inventive plan for escaping to freedom.

Inspirational in its simplicity, HENRY'S FREEDOM BOX tells a moving story of one individual's strength of spirit. It also poignantly presents the heart-wrenching sorrow of families torn apart, and the powerlessness of the enslaved. This book does not preach. In fact, its message is almost understated. But, in the eyes of the boy, the gentleness of his mother, the cramped crated body of the escaping man, its meaning comes across loud and clear: Even in the best of situations, slavery is an evil thing.

Artwork by Kadir Nelson brings warmth and reality to a story that otherwise is told rather straightforwardly. With crosshatched pencil lines under layers of watercolor and oils, he has created amazingly sensitive and powerful portraits based on an anti-slavery lithograph of Henry "Box" Brown that was printed in 1850. His illustrations alone make this a book worth having.

Author: Ellen Levine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication date: January 1, 2008
Number of pages: 40
Hardcover price: $16.99
Read Aloud: 4
Read Alone: 7