Description
In 1991, eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot soared above the rooftops of New York City in Tar Beach …one of the most acclaimed children’s book debut of recent years.
In Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, Cassie returns to the skies. Flying way up, so far up that the mountains look like rock candy and the oceans like tiny cups of tea, Cassie and her brother, Be Be, encounter a fantastic train–the Underground Railroad train–and a tiny woman in a conductor’s uniform. The woman is Harriet Tubman, who transports Cassie and Be Be back to the terrifying world of a slave plantation and on a desperate–but ultimately triumphant–journey of escape.
Drawing on historical accounts of the Underground Railroad and the facts of Harriet Tubman’s life, and on the rich resources of her own imagination, Faith Ringgold has created a book that both recounts the chilling realities of slavery and joyfully celebrates freedom. Cover excerpt, Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold, Crown Publishers, New York 1992.
Awards
- 1993 National Council of Social Studies Children’s Book Council Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
- 1993 Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award
