Publisher's Weekly Review
In a starred review,PW called this novel, based on the life of a slave who disguised herself as a boy and escaped at age 13, "dramatic, often poignant." Ages 10-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This episodic novel is based on the life of a former slave, Ann Maria Weems. Filled with details, the text has a slow pace and endeavors to encompass every facet of slavery, from servitude to freedom, in one person's story. Scattered moments of high drama may not quite satisfy the intended audience. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 7^-10. Based on the true story of Ann Maria Weems, a young teenage slave in Maryland who escaped on the Underground Railroad to Canada in the 1850s, this historical novel combines the appeal of exciting escape adventure with authentic details of the time and place. Carbone's research is meticulous; unfortunately, the local color nearly chokes the story. We really do not need to know exactly what everyone ate at every meal, what they wore, what they did at the county fair. And then, why make up a romantic ending? The boy Ann loved under slavery escapes, and on the last page, he finds her in Canada, and they marry and live happily ever after. The author's note says that part is only "conjecture." Of course, readers will be caught up in the suspense of narrow escapes and daring disguise on Ann's journey with various brave conductors to freedom. The real story is in the characters' personal lives: the sense of how it felt to be a child under slavery and to have your family broken up, your brothers sold away; then the shock of what it meant to be free. The scenes of family reunion are heartfelt drama. --Hazel Rochman
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-The Underground Railroad takes center stage in Elisa Carbone's story of the Weems family who live as slaves in Maryland in the mid 1800s. John, the father, is a free man, but the rest of his family is owned, mistreated, and sold whenever the master feels like it. After three sons are sold, John buys freedom for his wife and one daughter with the help of the Vigilance Committee, a group of northerners dedicated to helping slaves escape. The master refuses to sell the Weems's 12-year-old daughter, Ann Maria. Determined to obtain freedom for his entire family, John secures passage for Ann Maria on the Underground Railroad with the help of a white abolitionist so that she can join the family in Canada. To survive the journey, Ann Maria is cleverly disguised as a boy who works as a horse and carriage driver. Carbone's historical novel is based on the life of a slave named Anna Marie Weems and much of the information has been culled from primary source documents. Robin Miles's narration is strong, but a bit bland, and utilizes some unusual pronunciations for homographs (primer, short-lived). That aside, this , compelling audiobook t, will be useful in social studies classes serving upper elementary and middle school students.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This compelling tale of a passenger on the Underground Railroad is entirely populated with historical figures; not since Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn (1993) has the physical and emotional impact of slavery been made so palpable. Child of a free father and a slave mother, Ann Maria Weems grows up in the warmth of a loving family that is suddenly torn apart when her brothers are sold South and money raised by abolitionists arrives, but only enough to purchase freedom for her mother and sister. Knowing that her harsh master will never willingly give her freedom, Ann Marie resolves to steal it when the opportunity'a staged kidnapping, at the hands of an abolitionist, Jacob Bigelow'arises. Only occasionally manipulating actual events, Carbone (Starting School With an Enemy, p. 809, etc.) sends Ann Marie from Maryland to Washington, where she hides for months in a garret, then on to relatives in Canada, where she drops permanently from sight. A richly detailed society emerges, in which the powerless hold their own through quick wit and strength of character, and the powerful, scarred by the fact of slavery, know little real peace. Varying in tone from devastating simplicity (``Master Charles loaded . . . the last of the chickens, five barrels of tobacco, two sacks of wheat, and his son, and took them all to Baltimore to be sold'') to subtle irony underlying scenes in which abolitionists gather to fuss over Ann Marie as if she were some rare animal, this story pays tribute to the power of the very idea of freedom. (Fiction. 11-15)
