Escape North! the Story of Harriet Tubman

February 15, 2001
Reviewed with Kim Siegelson's "Escape South!"

Two easy chapter books bring new readers the thrill of the slave escape story. In "Escape North!" part of the Step into Reading series, the story of Harriet Tubman is simply told with color illustrations on every page. The first chapter dramatizes one of Tubman's many trips on the Underground Railroad. Then the book goes back in time to tell her life story. There's some confusion when the chronological story reaches the point where the first chapter left off, but, otherwise, the telling is direct and dramatic. The amazing facts of the Underground Railroad speak of danger, heroism, and triumph. It's an exciting introduction to both biography and black history that will also make a suspenseful read-aloud. Less familiar are the journeys of those who escaped south. Focusing on one child and his family, Siegelson's docu-novel, "Escape South," in the Road to Reading series fictionalizes the history of runaways who were given shelter and land by the Seminole Indians in Florida and later left for land out west. There's a lot of history to cover, and this is less accessible than the Tubman story. But Siegelson makes vivid the horrors of slavery, as well as the courage of those who ran and the importance of those who sheltered the runaways. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2001
Using as a framework a story about Tubman's leading a slave family's escape through the Underground Railroad, this brief biography summarizes Tubman's life, from her birth as a slave in Maryland to her service as a "Moses of Her People" before, during, and after the Civil War. Soft, rather static illustrations accompany the text, whose short sentences and somewhat abrupt transitions struggle to convey complex material in simple form.

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