Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky - Fantasy Picturebook

Ringgold, F. (1992) Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky. New York: Scholastic.

This story of a girl, Cassie, and her little brother, BeBe, who had a dream one day.  The dream took her to a train in the sky.  The train taught the two of them about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  In the story Harriet Tubman tells Cassie and BeBe about slavery, slave customs, and slave living. Harriet then has Cassie imagine what it would be like to live then by travelling in time, to feel what it was like to live in a slave house or try to escape along the underground railroad.  

Fantasy Picture book - Fantastic Story (because of the time travel and the flying through the sky).  This book is for grades K - 5.  It is a picture book that is illustrated with paint on canvas.

I love books that have different perspectives or teach without being textbook like....Aunt Harriet's does that in many ways.  It teaches about the underground railroad and about Harriet Tubman.  It also changes from many different perspectives.  It is the multiple perspectives that makes this book more challenging and at times difficult to understand.  The picture really aid in one's comprehension and I'm not sure you could fully understand it without it.  

This is a great book to read over and over and even to use as an anticipatory guide for learning about the underground railroad and slavery.  It is a great book do use  a lot of the "Mosaic of thought" principles.  There is a lot of inferring that needs to be done to connect the dots in this book!

Henry's Freedom Box

There is no question as to why this book was a Caldecott Honor book.  The illustrations and perspective alone in this book are so interesting, diverse and fun.  I love how they show how contorted Henry was while his box was upside down and the struggle on the the little part of his face we could see.  I loved how it showed the cut out of what Henry was thinking while the men on the outside were sitting on him.  Such a fun play on the illustration and what a great jumping off point for lessons on inference.

The story though was both sad and uplifting.  It was sad that his wife and children were sent off, never to be seen again without a goodbye.  This alone is a great discussion point for children, what would it be like if today were the last they would have been to see someone they loved.

Yet Henry's freedom (and another new way in which I've never read about how slaves got free) is very positive.  He had to make sacrifices and put himself in danger but it is what he wanted.