Minty: A story of a young Harriet Tubman - Biography Picturebook

Schroeder, A (1996). Minty: A story of a young Harriet Tubman. New York: Dial.

This biography is from a completely different perspective as the biography of Harriet Tubman earlier presented.  This biography details her childhood as that of being very disobedient to her slave owners but loyal to her family.  It discusses how her taught her the numerous survival skills she used to become free.  It also told the story of how there was one night where she had the opportunity to escape and become free if she only had the courage to steal a horse.  That experience and the regret of it, must have taught her to have courage further in life.

Biography picture book for K-3.  The illustrations are done with pencil, colored pencil and watercolor.

I wanted to keep my two biographies about the same person as to compare them.  This book helps to build Harriet Tubman as a character and a person much more because we feel more attached to her childhood and her actions as a child.  It makes her more like someone the kids can relate to.  Hearing about her becoming a nurse and a conductor and a spy seem so fanatical but hiding when you are called and setting the traps free.  Those are experiences that kids can relate to!

Because of the content of this text, I would use this book as a read aloud to discuss character.  I would position it as a person who I loved and admired but who was a kid who acted just like them.  Then the students could better think about how she was like them as I was reading.

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.