Publisher's Weekly Review
Crouch's facility with character voices gives color and atmosphere to this tale of a Southern white country boy forced to help an evil overseer track down a runaway slave family. Charlie is a simple, naive, uneducated boy who only knows farming, but when his father dies in 1858, cruel Cap'n Buck insists on his help as payment for his father's debts. Charlie comes to sympathize with the slave family he is pursuing and must make a choice whether to help them, at great risk to himself. Crouch reads Charlie with just enough of a folksy Southern twang to make lines like "If you was to ax me afore I seent what happened to Pap, I never would've thought time could slow down in the way it done" sound natural, while not making the accent so thick that children would have trouble understanding it. His Cap'n Buck has a monstrous, growling voice, while the runaway slave woman is dignified and fierce in her righteous defiance, and her son Sylvanus, who attends a boarding school, has an educated, intellectual tone. Crouch brings the characters to life, making this adventure novel all the more entertaining. Ages 9-12. A Scholastic Press hardcover. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old narrator Little Charlie Bobo is already the size of a man, and when his South Carolina sharecropper father dies in a freak accident, the sheriff suspects Charlie. Charlie figures thats just another example of the luck of the Bobos, and his luck gets even worse when the cruel white overseer of a nearby plantation insists on Charlie (who is also white) accompanying him to Detroit on a mysterious mission to retrieve stolen property. Charlie is observant but very naive, and it takes a while for him to realize why they are heading north. Narrator Crouch does an excellent job conveying Charlies speech (which can be challenging to read in the print version) along with the ugliness of the despicable Capn Buck. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-When strangers initially meet six-foot, four-inch Little Charlie Bobo, they often mistake the 12-year-old boy for a man. After his father's death in an accident in the summer of 1858, Charlie finds himself facing adult responsibilities and decisions. When the devious, heartless Cap'n Buck arrives on Charlie's doorstep demanding repayment of a 50-dollar loan, the youth agrees to the man's offer: accompany him from South Carol-liney to Detroit and Canada to recapture thieves-former slaves of Massa Tanner. During their journey, the wool lifts from Charlie's eyes and his ever-pondering mind begins working overtime to see past the lies he'd been taught and to right a terrible wrong. Narrator Michael Crouch superbly tackles the difficult dialect, Charlie's pendulum of emotions, and the pompous, slimy Cap'n Buck. Curtis's young protagonist will sow the seed of courage in listeners with this heart-wrenching, and at times gut-wrenching, reminder that we must learn from history. VERDICT A "gay-run-teed" great listen and top pick.-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City School District, OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.