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Parents' Guide to

All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom

By Regan McMahon, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

Poignant imagining of enslaved people learning of freedom.

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The gentle, spare text and E.B. Lewis' stunning watercolors keep the focus intimate and the mood quiet and wondrous, as the girl and those around her take their first cautious steps of freedom. All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom imagines what it might have been like for the enslaved people working on a cotton plantation in Texas to learn that U.S. slavery had officially ended, and it imagines that moment through the eyes of a child.

This beautiful picture book could trigger discussions about why U.S. slavery lasted as long as it did, how the Civil War brought an end to it, and what it must have felt like to be granted freedom after so many years of hardship and captivity. An author's note, an illustrator's note, a glossary of terms, and a timeline give more historical context and information. There's also an explanation of Juneteenth (June 19), which commemorates the day Texas finally decreed its enslaved people free after the Confederacy lost the war -- two and a half years after President Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

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