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Summary
Summary
The remarkable true story of how former slave Isabella Baumfree transformed herself into the preacher and orator Sojourner Truth, an iconic figure of the abolitionist and women's rights movements.
Written in the fiery and eloquent voice of Sojourner Truth herself, My Name Is Truth will captivate readers just as Sojourner's passionate words enthralled her listeners.
The text by acclaimed author Ann Turner and the paintings from award-winning illustrator James Ransome underwent expert review by two historians of the period.
This beautifully illustrated and impeccably researched picture book biography includes a detailed historical note and a list of suggested supplemental reading materials.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-This picture book biography tackles the life of former slave and abolitionist Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth. Turner details the life of this pivotal figure, who was born into slavery in the late-18th century in New York, along with 11 siblings, all of whom were sold off. The account is told in first-person narrative, with Truth discussing how her different owners treated her and how she seized freedom for herself when one of them broke his promise to free her. Her journey culminated in her work as a preacher, and many spreads are dedicated to Truth displaying her power, passion, and poise as a speaker, spreading her antislavery message wherever she went. Turner makes effective use of dialect, and the well-crafted text reads like poetry or a monologue ("`Welcome,' they said/had anyone ever said that word to me before?/and showed me a fine wide room with a white bed to sleep in/I never slept in a bed before"). Rich, painterly watercolor illustrations effectively reflect the pain of Truth's past and the lyrical nature of her narrative, while the use of different fonts highlights the most crucial parts of the narrative. Those who are already somewhat familiar with Truth will get the most out of this book, and educators will find the author's note helpful in explaining this historical figure to students. A wonderful addition to collections of African American history that will also work well as a read-aloud.-Samantha Lumetta, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
With plainspoken lyricism, Turner imagines Isabella Baumfree narrating her own story: the violent dehumanization she endured as a slave, her escape from slavery, and how she evolved into the figure known as Sojourner Truth. Turner is unflinching in her account of the abuses inflicted on Baumfree by slave-owners: "I was always getting beat./ Once he fired up a bunch of green/ sticks in the fire hardened like stone/ and beat me until the blood ran." After securing her own freedom, Baumfree gained legal help to retrieve her enslaved son, and embraced a new role as a civil rights activist and preacher. Ransome's watercolors infuse the story with emotion, from the agony of separation (her 11 siblings were "sold off one by one") to her impassioned speeches and the contentment and satisfaction she eventually found. Ages 6-10. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery but later escaped and transformed herself into Sojourner Truth, antislavery speaker and women's-rights advocate. Assuming the voice of Sojourner, Turner's free-verse narrative is loose and colloquial, and the punctuation quirky. Ransome's dramatic watercolors complement a page design that plays with font size, italics, and ribbons of words floating across double-page spreads. Reading list. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An American story of an extraordinary woman.Writing in free verse and borrowing the voice of the great abolitionist, Turner presents a powerful account of Truth's life. Born into slavery as Isabella and sold from family to family, she took the name Sojourner Truth and began preaching for freedom. Later in life, she dictated her story, published as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Ransome paints in evocative watercolors that are barely contained in full-bleed pages that capture both the drama and the sorrow of her life. Particularly effective is a double-page spread with three views of Sojourner Truth behind a pulpit forcefully "tell[ing] the news of God's truth in meetings and gatherings." Against a white background, the images explode across the pages. Selected words in larger type and italics are a strong component of the page design. As a read-aloud, the text is strong and effective. As a part of a curriculum, there are concerns. The first-person narrative can be mistakenly taken as an autobiography, which it is not, and quotations are not sourced. When used in concert with other sources, a powerful life of a determined woman who rose from slavery to preach for freedom. (author's note, photograph, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this picture book, Sojourner Truth narrates her own story, beginning when, as a nine-year-old slave, she is sold away by her family's master. She works for a succession of owners until she is a young woman. After the last one, Master Dumont, breaks his promise to free her early, she escapes to a neighboring house, where she works for several years. When she hears that her son has been sold, she returns to the Dumonts' and demands his return. Later, she preaches to crowds of people about the news of God's truth and the evils of slavery. Lively and expressive, Ransome's watercolor paintings include some memorable images. While the text is strong poetically, it occasionally leaves out facts important for understanding the story and explains them in the appended author's note, if at all. The decision to tell the story in the voice of Sojourner Truth is problematic as well, given the lack of source notes indicating actual quotes. Still, this emotionally resonant picture book could be used effectively in conjunction with traditional biographies.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
These works of biography and historical fiction immerse young readers in the 19th- and 20th-century struggles for equal rights. MY NAME IS TRUTH The Life of Sojourner Truth By Ann Turner Illustrated by James Ransome 40 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 10) CHASING FREEDOM The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts By Nikki Grimes Illustrated by Michele Wood 53 pp. Orchard Books/Scholastic. $18.99. (Picture book; ages 5 and up) THE CASE FOR LOVING The Fight for Interracial Marriage By Selina Alko Illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko 40 pp. Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic. $18.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 9) AT HOME IN THE world. The first time I heard this expression, I reveled in the very idea of it. It felt like the perfect life goal for all humankind: a feeling of complete belongingness and freedom, unconstrained by society's perceptions of your capabilities, wherever you happen to be - at home or in public. The phrase resonates in three new picture books that highlight issues of race, gender and justice. These stories - about Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, and the Loving v. Virginia case that struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage - all have main characters with a steadfast determination to change their lives. They are willing to fight their known hell for an unknown, possibly harsher fate. In each book, the law looms as a character, too, a force that can save lives or kill spirits. And all three books are, in different ways, interracial tales, reminding us that diverse coalitions have always worked together to achieve racial progress. Isabella Baumfree, later known as the legendary preacher and orator Sojourner Truth, was born a slave. Her parents watched helplessly as each of their 12 children was sold off, sent away and never seen again. "My Name Is Truth" begins with an unflinching look at slave life, its harshness and brutality. In one illustration, Isabella is shown standing among sheep, waiting to be sold, as two white men haggle over her price (they settle on $150). After being bought and sold several times, Isabella decides to run away. By running free, she claims herself: "I owned myself now /I was not a slave." She took a new name to go with her new life: Sojourner Truth, because she traveled about, speaking the truth. She earned her name as she went around the country, exhorting abolition and gender equality. Ann Turner's story does not make reference to Truth's famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, a welcome omission. Though it has come to be considered Truth's signature lecture, historians have questioned whether she spoke those exact words, and it has overshadowed her decades-long contributions to the abolitionist movement, becoming a one-note encapsulation of her life's work: "Sojourner Truth. 'Ain't I a Woman?' The end." I hope this invigorating picturebook biography will encourage young people to learn more about Truth, and read some of her speeches. James Ransome's watercolor illustrations are a fine match for Turner's straight-to-the-heart narrative. He captures the shifting heft of Truth's life - the backbreaking labor, the delight of sleeping on a bed for the first time, the power of her sermons over listeners. Some of his illustrations go beyond the words to portray a cosmic, seemingly preordained life of service for Truth. "Chasing Freedom" is another beautiful, richly detailed book, a work of historical fiction that imagines a friendship between Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony. Both women spent their lives working to end slavery and secure equal rights for women. Nikki Grimes's choice of format is notable. The story unfolds in a series of onepage vignettes, each building upon the previous one, as the two women meet for tea one afternoon and look back on their lives and work. This structure allows Grimes to introduce readers to movement leaders of the day. We see Frederick Douglass (who helped Tubman hide slaves in his home), John Brown (who told Tubman of his plan to raid Harpers Ferry) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who founded women's groups with Anthony). Grimes's layered history uncovers the public lives and private ruminations of Tubman and Anthony. In their conversation, set in 1904, the pair talk womanhood and protest. They nod as they discuss the ugliness of gender inequity. Tubman's stories reveal her determination - most notably her 10-year slave rescue mission - and her laments. She expresses sadness (not regret) that her work travels ended her marriage. Anthony's stories, too, detail the cost of her commitment - being vilified by the press, being shouted down at meetings, having doors slammed in her face. Along with presenting absorbing portraits of both women, this story of cross-racial friendship will allow older elementary-school readers to see connections between the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Each of Michele Wood's illustrations is a museum-worthy visual treasure. Her people are surrounded by rich-hued block quilt designs, embedded with symbols, including washboards, drums and crosses. This is a book that works on all levels. "The Case for Loving" tells the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, who fell in love young and hard. She was black and he was white, and in 1958 it was illegal for them to wed in Virginia. They were able to marry in Washington, D.C., but after returning home they were arrested and charged with "unlawful cohabitation." The judge gave them a choice: jail or banishment from Virginia. They moved to Washington, but later took their fight to the Supreme Court and won. The Lovings did not consider themselves pioneers or crusaders for interracial marriage. In a 1966 Life magazine interview, Richard said: "We are not doing it just because somebody had to do it and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for us." Still, they helped change history, and their story is given an added dimension as it is told through the lens of an author and an illustrator who are themselves an interracial married couple. Sean Qualls and Selina Alko collaborated on the skillful artwork that carries the story forward. Pages depicting good times feature symbols of childhood innocence - hearts, flowers, peppermint candies and butterflies. But when the law intervenes to delegitimize the couple's love, the pages are more stark and spare - showing the shock of being arrested and the isolation of their city living. Alko's calm, fluid writing complements the simplicity of the Lovings' wish - to be allowed to marry. Some of the wording, though, strikes a sour note. "Richard Loving was a good, caring man; he didn't see differences," she writes, suggesting, implausibly, that he did not notice Mildred's race. After Mildred is identified as part black, part Cherokee, we are told that her race was less evident than her small size - that town folks mostly saw "how thin she was." This language of colorblindness is at odds with a story about race. In fact, this story presents a wonderful chance to address the fact that noticing race is normal. It is treating people better or worse on the basis of that observation that is a problem. All told, "The Case for Loving" is an engaging and important story, one that invites young people to think about the connections between love, law and justice. Along with "My Name Is Truth" and "Chasing Freedom," it reminds us that for some the struggle to be at home in the world - truly free - has always been a mighty and hard-fought one. ? KATHERYN RUSSELL-BROWN, a professor of laW at the University of Florida, is the author of the picture book "Little Melba and Her Big Trombone."
