All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom
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What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Angela Johnson's All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom imagines the day enslaved workers in a Texas cotton field learned that an end to U.S. slavery had been decreed. It was June 19, 1865, a day now commemorated in more than 40 states as Juneteenth. The story is told through the eyes of a young enslaved girl, and illustrator E.B. Lewis' gorgeous watercolors capture the changing emotions of kids and adults before and after receiving the news. All Different Now provides a sensitive way to kick off a discussion of U.S. slavery and how the Union's victory in the Civil War ended it -- two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. It wasn't formally abolished until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted on December 18, 1865.
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What's the story?
In ALL DIFFERENT NOW: JUNETEENTH, THE FIRST DAY OF FREEDOM, a little girl recalls the day everything changed. She awakes, eats breakfast in the cabin on a Texas plantation, and goes out to pick cotton while "word spread from the port, to town, through the countryside, and into the fields" that a Union general had announced that enslaved people were now free "and things would be all different now." She observes the reactions of the adults as they hear the news: Some sing, some cry, some bow their heads and whisper. Then she and her family have an afternoon picnic on the beach and are joined by other newly freed people, and they all eat, laugh, and tell stories "as free people on into the night." They return to their cabin to sleep and in the morning load up wagons and leave.
Is it any good?
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.
Talk to your kids about ...
Families can talk about Juneteenth. What do you know about it? Are there Juneteenth celebrations where you live? Do you know why people remember it as a special day?
How do the pictures help tell the story? What's your favorite picture in All Different Now, and why?
How does All Different Now help you understand what the end of the Civil War meant for enslaved people in the United States?
Book details
- Author: Angela Johnson
- Illustrator: E.B. Lewis
- Genre: Picture Book
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters, Friendship, Great Girl Role Models, History, Holidays, Horses and Farm Animals, Misfits and Underdogs
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication date: May 6, 2014
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 5 - 9
- Number of pages: 40
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: June 24, 2020
Our editors recommend
For kids who love African American books and U.S. Civil War stories
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