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Summary
Summary
From celebrated author Gary D. Schmidt comes a picture book biography of a giant in the struggle for civil rights, perfectly pitched for readers today.
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans. Her story is told with lyricism and pathos by Gary D. Schmidt, one of the most celebrated writers for children in the twenty-first century, and brought to life by award winning and fine artist Daniel Minter. This combination of talent is just right for introducing this legendary figure to a new generation of children.
Author Notes
Gary D. Schmidt is the author of more than fifteen books for children and young adults including Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy , which received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor, and The Wednesday Wars , which received a Newbery Honor. He lives in Alto, Michigan.
Daniel Minter has illustrated a dozen books for children including Ellen's Broom , which received a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor. He lives in Portland, Maine.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Schmidt tells the powerful story of Sojourner Truth (born Isabella), highlighting the context of her courageous actions: "When Isabella was about nine, she was sold for a hundred dollars-along with a flock of sheep." After a lifetime of slavery, Isabella escaped, yet her five-year-old son was sent to the South, leading her to travel across New York to speak to the Grand Jury. Minter paints luminously, alternating between full-bleed spreads and dreamlike vertical images. At the denouement, Schmidt describes how Isabella took on the name of Sojourner Truth as she embarked on her walking journey to denounce slavery: "In Freedom Time, when Hope kindled a fire in the dark and Happiness winked over the horizon." A soaring poetic tribute to a human rights champion. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
This hauntingly beautiful and uncompromisingly direct picture-book biography takes larger-than-life figure Sojourner Truth (1797?1883) from childhood to old age, focusing on her acts of courage at a time when black Americans had few legal rights. Schmidts primary narrative tells, as one instance, of the woman confronting her former master to demand the return of her five-year-old son, Peter, who had been sold illegally; then using her knowledge of the legal system to fight for Peters return. Minters watercolor and mixed-media art is stunning. By often making Sojourner Truth the largest figure on the page or spread, he emphasizes her strength and determination when fighting for freedom, justice, and equality for African Americans and women. Most striking are the left-hand pages that include Minters tall, slender vertical panels alongside Schmidts secondary verse about Slavery Time. In Slavery Time, when Words seemed weaker than whips is printed next to a picture of an enslaved man, arms raised as if tied for whipping, with seven lines of unreadable cursive written in bright-red blood across his back. An essential text for studying Civil Warera American history, with art that will draw readers back again and again. michelle h. martin January/February 2019 p 122(c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Sojourner Truth's story began when she was a little girl named Isabella Baumfree, a slave sold many times over through childhood and adulthood until she broke free and set her life on her own course. Schmidt chronicles this woman's remarkable accomplishments: using her knowledge of the law to regain her son, moving to New York City to find siblings she had never known, changing her name to Sojourner Truth, and spreading the word about the evils of slavery. Schmidt's narrative glosses over the logistics of such achievements, making them seem easy, and language such as she worked for rather than she was owned by mitigates the reality of her life as a slave. Readers will do well to explore the additional sources he provides in the back matter. However, this picture-book biography is notable for Minter's arresting paintings, which capture both the pain of slavery and Sojourner Truth's strength. White lacelike details overlay passionate brushstrokes in blue, copper, and red, and vertical panels accompany lines of poetry containing a timely message on freedom.--Amina Chaudhri Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
at A literacy center in Brooklyn where I volunteered a couple of years ago, I was often surprised by which books would catch a child's eye. It was not always the ones with bold jackets or zany titles, as I somehow expected. Often it would be a quiet story - a bit old-fashioned, even. One favorite was Barbara Cooney's 1982 "Miss Rumphius," about a girl who grows up wanting to fulfill her grandfather's request that she do something "to make the world more beautiful." After many travels she finally returns home and plants a lot of blue and purple lupines in the fields around her house. The end. I loved to watch how intently a young reader would turn the pages and puzzle out this modest and satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the story, too - and while it was partly inspired by a real-life figure, I wanted it to be all true. Publishers of today's picture books must be on my wavelength. Perhaps nudged by the Common Core crusade, which called in part for high-quality nonfiction for children, they are producing a bonanza of beautifully illustrated and closely researched nonfiction books about unsung heroes as well as heroes we can't read enough about. Best of all, if you like true stories, they include superbly detailed endnotes and suggestions for further reading. It's anyone's guess which of these new books a child might reach for - but it might surprise you. CHILDREN who love words should warm to Alexandria Giardino's ode to an onion: Pablo Neruda and His Muse (Cameron Kids, 32 pp., $17.95; ages 4 to 8), which imagines a small episode in the life of a great poet. The spare prose echoes Neruda's own celebrations in verse of simple things, like the onion: "luminous vessel... bright as a planet," vanquishing "the hunger / of the laborer along the hard road." We first see Pablo at his desk, "writing a long, sad poem," until he realizes he's about to be late for lunch with his friend Mathilde. In Felicita Sala's vivacious and beautifully detailed drawings, done in colored pencil, Mathilde's smile and Pablo's glum expression give a tender humor to this real-life relationship, as they gather vegetables from her garden to cook. The full text of his poem "Ode to the Onion" appears in the original Spanish at the end, and in an excellent translation by Giardino. SO TALL WITHIN: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom (Roaring Brook, 32 pp., $18.99; ages 5 to 9), written by Gary D. Schmidt and illustrated by Daniel Minter, is a stirring introduction to an extraordinary life. Born into slavery on a Dutch farm in New York State, Sojourner Truth chose her own name after she won her freedom and began a walk that, over her long life, extended to thousands of miles as she journeyed from camp meetings to abolition halls "to tell the truth about Slavery." She never learned to read or write, yet successfully sued a white slaveholder in court for the return of her son (who had been illegally sold), addressed the first Women's Rights Conventions, and insisted on riding in whites-only streetcars in Washington, D.C., after the Civil War. "I felt so tall within - I felt as if the power of a nation was with me!" The plain-spoken and eloquent quotations in this book come directly from her 1878 memoir, "Narrative of Sojourner Truth." Daniel Minter's paintings, in saturated tones of midnight blues and leaf browns and golds, bring it powerfully to life. did you know that Japan bombed Oregon during World War II? I didn't either. Sometimes the most inconsequential episodes in larger stories can turn out to be the most moving, and so it is with thirty minutes OVER OREGON: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story (Clarion, 32 pp., $17.99; ages 6 to 9), by Marc Tyler Nobleman, illustrated by Melissa Iwai. After Pearl Harbor, apparently, the Japanese military believed a successful attack on the United States mainland would be effective propaganda, so in 1942 a bombing raid was planned to start a fire in the Oregon woods that would "rage into nearby towns and cities." Iwai's fine renderings of the unsuspecting townspeople of Brookings, Ore., are matched by her depictions of the bomber, which was launched from a Japanese submarine deck by slingshot. Fortunately, the plan failed, but the story goes someplace completely unexpected when, years later, the boosterish citizens of Brookings track down the pilot, Nobuo Fujita, to invite him to a Memorial Day ceremony. He is welcomed warmly - and even teased about his poor fire-setting skills - and friendships made that day continue to grow for another generation and beyond, until his story becomes a thought-provoking meditation on the power of forgiveness, of others and oneself. the "girls who code" movement should probably get some extra credit for the trend in fine books about women who made history in science and math, nothing STOPPED SOPHIE: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain (Little, Brown, 32 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to8), written by Cheryl Bardoe and illustrated by Barbara McClintock, tells the story of a young woman who made her mark in the lofty academies of Paris after the French Revolution. With trouble in the streets, Sophie was often forced to stay inside for her safety, and she fell in love with the study of mathematics. She would even sneak out of bed to work on problems while everyone was asleep. Her parents' response? To take away her candles! Yet she didn't give up, and in 1816, after years of work, she won a grand prize from the Royal Academy of Sciences for solving an "impossible" problem: how to predict patterns of vibration, a real-life challenge to designers of buildings and bridges. Barbara McClintock's illustrations in markers, gouache and collage show Sophie moving through life in a bright swirl of numbers, floating like thought balloons all around her. Refreshingly, Sophie Germain's story not only reminds us of the importance of perseverance, it recalls a time when discoveries were often made by hard-working amateurs - for the fun of it. JULIE just, a former children's books editor at the Book Review, is an editor at The New York Review of Books.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Focusing on the impact of slavery on Sojourner Truth's life and her ongoing fight to end the institution, Schmidt and Minter choose a lyrical and evocative approach to her story. Readers learn about the hardships and cruelty she endured under various masters before her walk to freedom and her legal battle to regain custody of her son. Schmidt incorporates the woman's own words as he recounts her anti-slavery speeches to crowds and her meeting with President Lincoln as she walked thousands of miles to advocate for freedom. Minter's illustrations, arresting at first glance, grow deeper and more compelling with repeated viewing. The vertical panels incorporate images such as ships crossing the ocean and slave collars. Equally striking are recurrent motifs of leaves, roots, and trees in depictions of events from Sojourner's life. Shadowy figures of people from the past, present, and future tie her struggle from the particular to the universal. Because the book omits important events such as her 1851 women's rights speech and minimizes the religious motivation for her activism and preaching, readers should also have access to other introductory biographies such as Andrea Davis Pinkney's Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride, Ann Turner's My Name Is Truth, and Anne Rockwell's Only Passing Through. VERDICT Outstanding illustrations make this a noteworthy addition to most libraries, but collections need to keep other books about Sojourner Truth to present multiple facets of her significant achievements.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The life and work of Sojourner Truth are detailed in this lyrical picture book by Schmidt (Martn de Porres, illustrated by David Diaz, 2012).The book begins "In Slavery Time, when Hope was a seed waiting to be planted." Most of Isabella's brothers and sisters were sold away before she could remember, but her mother told her that the same moon and stars looked down upon them all. Then Isabella was sold and separated from her mother. She was made to work hard, then made to marry, then promised freedom but not granted it, so finally she "seized Freedom with her own hands." Her son was sold away from her, and she used the law to get him back. After reuniting with some of her own siblings, she decided to make "a journeya sojournto tell the truth about Slavery." Schmidt details the states she stopped in and quotes words she used to speak her truth. (The bibliography describes the manuscript from which her words are quoted.) The poetic text highlights her inner journey, giving readers not just a strong historical figure, but a human being in insufferable circumstances, a feat not often accomplished in books for young readers, particularly about enslaved people. Minter's art is emotional and haunting, with colors of blue and auburn, near-transparent silhouettes, faces that have seen too much, and nature looking on. The art itself tells stories of stolen childhood, torn families, and finding purpose. Powerful, moving, necessary. (biographical note, artist's note) (Picture book/biography. 6-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
