Picture Book #15--Henry's Freedom Box

Title:  Henry's Freedom Box

Author:  Ellen Levine

Illustrator:  Kadir Nelson

Grade Level Equivalent:  1.9

Lexile Measure:  AD380L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Biography
Theme:  Never give up.
Primary and Secondary Characters:  Henry, Nancy, James, Dr. Smith
Awards:  N/A

Date of Publication:  2007

Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc.

ISBN:  043977733X

Henry's Freedom Box tells the story of Henry, a slave who is separated from his mother when his master falls ill and sells him to his son.  Later, Henry meets Nancy, another slave, and eventually the two get married and have three children.  One day, while Henry is at work, a friend tells him that Nancy and the kids have been sold.  He runs out onto the street just in time to see his wife and children being carted away, too late to stop them.  Hearbroken, Henry comes up with a plan to get out of slavery.  He places himself into a big, wooden crate and has two friends, James and Dr. Smith--a white man, nonetheless--mail him to Pennsylvania. 

I loved this book and think it would be great to have in a classroom for children to read during a lesson on the Civil War and slavery.   I hate that there was no resolution with Henry's family and that would be a hard thing for students to grasp nowadays, but they have to understand that this sort of thing happened all the time.  Children were ripped away from their families to be sold into slavery.  It's a hard fact of the history of this country.  But I think this would be a beneficial story for students to hear.  There are so many writing activities that could come from this book.  Students could write about what they would do if they were Henry sitting in that box, waiting for freedom or they could write from the perspective of Henry's children.  What would you do and how would you feel if you were in that situation.  It is a perfect writing assignment for children that will force them to think creatively and build up their empathy, having to relate to what others have gone through in the past.