Who Was Harriet Tubman? - Biography Chapter Book

McDonough, Y. Z. (2002). Who was Harriet Tubman? New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.

This book is part of the "Who Was..." series of biographies.  They are all written so that they are more accessible for younger students to read biographies.  This book give a full listing of events in her life.  It talks about her young childhood and how she learned many of the survival skills that helped her be a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  What it also went into detail about was that her life's work was more than just the Underground Railroad.  She was only doing the Underground Railroad for 8 years.  She usually ran slaves twice a year but had such a steep price on her head that she had to stop.  She did so much more with her life.  She was a military nurse, a spy for the northern army, started a Home for those that needed help or caring for, spoke at many rallies and so much more.  Harriet Tubman is known for what she did on the Underground Railroad, but her life was filled so much more!

Biography for Grades 2-5.  It is a chapter book with black and white pencil sketches, diagrams, and maps to aid in understanding

Harriet Tubman is a significant person to any study of the Underground railroad.  I had never read any books as part of this series and I wanted to as to determine their usefulness in nonfiction literature.

This book is a great book to help dissuade those students who have a negative feeling towards academic reading.  There is a great amount of knowledge that can be gained from this book and it can be read by many academic levels and still attain information.  I only wish it contained more nonfiction text features, like and index, a glossary, or bold words so that it could be even more accessible as an academic text.