Written by Barbara Smucker
Published at Penguin Books
About the book
Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slave trader’s wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach someday. So when workers from the Underground Railroad offer to help the two girls escape, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them…
Our Thoughts
I will admit that I knew about the Underground Railroad but I never really realized that the place where former slaves were trying to escape to was Canada – not until I read this book. I was born and raised in Quebec and the Underground Railroad was not part of the history of that province. And as far as I can remember it was never really mentioned in the history of Canada lessons either. But I married a Franco-Ontarian and we live in Ontario. When I started to homeschool, I stumbled here and there on mentioned of Underground Railroad but somehow I thought it was about slaves trying to reach the northern states of the US.
Imagine my surprise when I read this marvelous novel who introduced me to the adventure of leaving the plantation where a slave was to escape north toward freedom. As I read this book, I was hooked and my oldest son also read it in an incredible short period of time. Both of us enjoyed learning more about the process of the Underground Railroad and discovering how much time it took to reach a destination.
Reading this book was an eye opener on something that was part of Canada’s history as well as the USA. We learned quite a bit about the Underground Railroad. The book also contains information on the author, a list of the main people involved in the Underground Railroad, things to do and things to think about. It also contains a glossary as well as a bibliography for those of you who would like to read more on the subject.
Underground to Canada is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Penguins Book Canada for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.
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