The Secret to Freedom

June 1, 2001
Gr 2-4-A story of the Underground Railroad as told by a former slave to her great niece many years later. After Lucy's parents are sold, her older brother, Albert, tells her about the Underground Railroad. He explains that different patchwork quilt patterns provide secret messages to help escaping slaves and the two of them become involved in helping others find their way to freedom. After a serious beating, Albert runs away and Lucy doesn't know his fate. After the Civil War, she becomes a teacher and marries. Then one day, she receives a scrap of fabric in the mail from her brother in Canada. He is alive and well and bringing his family to visit her. Then readers realize that the child hearing the story is Albert's great granddaughter. Vaughn's well-written story is told with a modified colloquial language that hints at the unschooled plantation speech but is easily understood by today's readers. Johnson's expressive acrylic paintings are rich in color and emotion. An author's note explains the quilt code of a number of patterns that are pictured on the back cover.-Eunice Weech, M. L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2001
Ages 5-8. A young girl listens to her Great-Aunt Lucy tell stories of life during slavery: Lucy's brother Albert becomes a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and Lucy assists him. Beaten by his suspicious owners, Albert reluctantly leaves his lame sister, and Lucy never knows if he has made it North. The Civil War ends, but Lucy isn't completely happy until many years later when she receives a message from Albert, alive and well in Canada. Part of that message is a small quilted square, a remembrance of the story's centerpiece, the sack of quilts that Albert brings to Lucy during their slave days. Each quilt pattern, designed with a secret code, gave information to slaves as they made their escape on the Underground Railroad. Although these signals are decoded in the text and more fully in an afterword, it's not always clear just how the pattern directed the runaways. A jarring note comes in the book's second spread when Great-Aunt Lucy says, "When I was about your age, I was a slave." Up until then, the story has seemed contemporary. On the plus side, the quilts-as-signals element is a fascinating sidelight to the history of the Underground Railroad, and the acrylic paintings, filled with both drama and warmth, speak of families, present and past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2001
Great-aunt Lucy tells about her childhood as a slave and her work on the Underground Railroad. She and her brother conveyed crucial messages to escaping slaves by hanging specific quilts on their fence (i.e., the wagon wheel pattern tells people that the "time's come to pack their belongings"). The accompanying paintings aptly convey the suspense and strong emotions in this well-told story. Bib.

(Copyright 2001 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)