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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 921 TRUTH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 921 TRUTH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J 921 TRUTH | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A powerful picture book biography of one of the abolitionist movement's most compelling voices.
Sojourner Truth traveled the country in the latter half of the 19th century, speaking out against slavery. She told of a slave girl who was sold three times by age 13, who was beaten for not understanding her master's orders, who watched her parents die of cold and hunger when they could no longer work for their keep. Sojourner's simple yet powerful words helped people to understand the hideous truth about slavery. The story she told was her own.
"Only Passing Through is the inspiring story of how a woman, born a slave with no status or dignity, transformed herself into one of the most powerful voices of the abolitionist movement. Anne Rockwell combines her lifelong love of history with her well-known skill as a storyteller to create this simple, affecting portrait of an American icon.
Author Notes
Anne Rockwell was born in Memphis, Tennessee on February 8, 1934. She moved to New York City at the age of 18 and found a job doing typing work for a textbook publisher. She studied at Pratt Graphic Arts Center and at the Sculpture Center.
She became an author and illustrator. Her first children's book, Paul and Arthur Search for the Egg, was published in 1964. Her other books included Boats, Fire Engines, Things That Go, Our Earth, and Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth. She collaborated on several books with her husband Harlow Rockwell including Sally's Caterpillar and The Toolbox. After her husband's death, she collaborated with her daughter Lizzy Rockwell. Their books included Career Day and Zoo Day. She died of natural causes on April 10, 2018 at the age of 85.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Though writing in the third person, Rockwell (Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me?) here gives Sojourner Truth an authentic, resonant voice. Ably tailoring her account to a young audience, the author opens her story as nine-year-old Isabella is being sold at a slave auction in Kingston, N.Y., in 1806. The narrative follows the heroine through her transformation into "Sojourner Truth," an itinerant preacher against the evils of slavery. After being denied the freedom that her master had promised her in 1826, the young woman escapes to the home of a nearby couple who abhor slavery; they then buy Isabella from her deceitful master and free her. Rockwell documents some remarkable incidents and demonstrates how far ahead of her time Isabella was: when her son is illegally sold to a plantation owner in another state, Isabella takes the perpetrator to court and wins the boy's freedom. "No one had ever heard of such a thing. Slaves didn't do such things. Women didn't do such things. But Isabella did." The author dramatically builds up to and convincingly recounts the pivotal moment when Isabella changes her name and vows to travel the country as "a voice for all the silent slaves still in bondage." Rockwell's vibrant storytelling, powerful content and moving author's note will likely send readers off to further reading about this extraordinary heroine. Christie (The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children) contributes stylized paintings that suggest a complex interior life for Sojourner. The artwork skillfully approaches the abstractDtwisting traditional perspective in a way that illuminates Sojourner's groundbreaking vision and voice. Ages 7-10. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) The facts in this picture-book biography speak as eloquently as its illustrations, which have an authority and passion recalling Jacob Lawrence's Harriet and the Promised Land. Rockwell traces the life of ""Isabella,"" who renamed herself Sojourner Truth when she began her journeys at the age of forty-six to speak out for the abolition of slavery. The book opens when the Dutch-speaking child was sold at the age of nine to a master who whipped her until she understood his English commands. A succession of such injustices culminated in the illegal selling of one of Isabella's children; against all precedent, the (now-freed) mother took her former master to court and won the boy's return-""his back covered with bloody wounds from a whip-wounds too much like her own."" The last third of the book covers her travels and her ability to win over opponents, not only with persuasive arguments but, in at least one dramatic instance, by singing in the face of stick-wielding antagonists. An author's note extends the historical context, cites her subject's autobiography as the primary source, and lists significant dates from Sojourner Truth's birth to the Nineteenth Amendment, rounding out her postwar dedication to women's rights as well as to the concerns of freed slaves. Christy's full-page paintings are rich with saturated color; his intense reds, especially, are expressionistically deployed to contrast with dramatic black. Perspectives are dynamic yet flat, bringing figures into the picture plane, which gives them even more immediacy; faces are composed of impressionistic dabs of brilliant colors that fuse into telling characterizations. It's a powerful story, well told and handsomely set: worthy of its courageous subject. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-8. In this moving picture-book biography, Rockwell's quiet, searing words and Christie's dramatic full-page, acrylic paintings express the sorrow, anger, and strength of the woman who made herself Sojourner Truth. She was born into slavery in New York State, named Isabella, and sold away from her parents at age nine; but she grew up a free woman who became one of the great abolitionist leaders. Inspired by the Bible, she renamed herself Sojourner Truth and traveled around the country telling firsthand what it meant to be a slave. Christie's narrative paintings, with shifting scale and perspective, show the strength, physical and spiritual, of the dark, uncompromising woman, who stood six feet tall and straight in plain clothes and spoke with passionate authority. A long note fills in some of her later life, including her role in the fight for women's rights. Rockwell says she used many sources but doesn't name any of them, other than citing Sojourner Truth's autobiography. --Hazel Rochman
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Rockwell concentrates on the part of Sojourner Truth's life that sometimes gets passed over in the rush to the "Ain't I a Woman" speech. In her long picture-book text, the author deftly weaves facts into a narrative that is straightforward and direct, if sometimes abrupt. She includes no references or bibliography, though she does mention Truth's autobiography as the "most helpful" of the sources she used. A detailed chronology of Truth's entire life helps to give context to Rockwell's specific story, but readers will have to do some exploring on their own to get the bigger picture. Christie's paintings, in a distinctive primitive style that overemphasizes people's heads, help to portray Truth's striking personality. Her chiseled, shining face dominates every page, and when she speaks, her entire figure controls and moves the composition. Unfortunately, the distorted look of the illustrations may not appeal to many children. The book is formally laid out, with a single-page painting framed in white facing text on every spread. Though this suits the formal sense in the composed illustrations and text, it adds to the distance some readers will feel when they pick up this book. If not immediately engaging to its readers or completely illuminating of its subject, this is a well-done introductory biography with a unique perspective that may move youngsters to look for more.-Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A lot of information is packed into this picture-book biography. Sojourner, originally named Isabella, was a Dutch-speaking child born into slavery. Details about her life in slavery, when she was purchased by an English-speaking master, her marriage to a man selected by her master, the birth and loss of her children, and the events leading up to her transformation to an advocate for freedom, are recounted with passion. Rockwell (Career Day, p. 720, etc.) adds an authors note explaining her motivation for writing this biography and cites Sojourners autobiography as her most helpful source. Additional information includes data about the subjects life beyond the events chronicled and a timeline. The book is written in serial style, with a cliffhanger phrase at the end of each page. Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner Christies (The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, 1996) primitive-style illustrations are striking. Oversized, mask-like heads, often fierce and foreboding, dominate many of the drawings. Earth-toned colors predominate in the stark depiction of Sojourners early life and the slave owners who mistreated her, but her strength shines through in all the illustrations. An excellent addition to the biography shelf as a compelling story of an extraordinary woman, as well as for its pertinence to school assignments. (Picture book/biography. 7-10)
