Black Pioneers Home Is with Our Family

February 1, 2011
Gr 5–8—-hirteen-year-old Maria and her family live in New York City in 1855. They are free "colored" people and own their home, but they have been notified that their neighborhood will be demolished for the future Central Park. The residents are furious that the city is taking their land and not paying them what they believe it is worth. A new girl in school, Anna, who is about Maria's age, is uneducated and reticent about her past. Maria discovers that although Anna's parents are free, Anna is considered a runaway and lives in fear of being captured by slave hunters. Maria is so impressed when she hears Sojourner Truth speak that she and her friends attempt to raise enough money to buy Anna's freedom. The story gets bogged down in too much description of Maria and her family's daily life, and the landowners' fight against the city is not fully developed. Only in the last few chapters when the girls flee a slave hunter and Anna and her family are hidden is there any excitement. The writing is merely a dull recitation of events, not the eloquent, flowing prose her fans have previously enjoyed. The story may find some interest in the New York area, or with the Hansen's die-hard fans.—"Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC"

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2010

It is 1855 in Manhattan and Maria Peters is 13 years old. The African-American girl wants nothing more than to take part in the local abolitionist meetings, but getting into fights in the schoolyard and failing her class sewing project lead Mama to believe she isn't mature enough to attend. But when the new girl at school turns out to be a runaway slave, Maria has a chance to show her family that her commitment to freedom is serious. Set against the backdrop of a New York City that was in the process of evicting free blacks and Irish and German immigrant families from the area that became Central Park, this straightforward series opener aims for the cozy feel of the Little House or All-of-a-Kind Family books, rich with details of Maria's home and school life. Unfortunately, Hansen misses that mark with occasionally didactic dialogue and slow pacing. Still, young readers will find the setting fascinating, and this will pair well with Tonya Bolden's nonfiction Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (2005). (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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January 1, 2011
Grades 5-8 The historical facts are even more gripping than the fiction in this novel set in 1850s New York City. In the first chapter, Maria Peters, 13, is inspired when she hears Sojourner Truth deliver a thundering abolitionist speech in church. In the last chapter, Maria and her family must leave home when the city destroys their black community to make room for Central Park. At times, the narrative bogs down with the details of the huge cast of characters trying to organize resistance to the displacement. But the heartrending abolitionist story is made personal with Marias new, quiet friend in school, Anna, who turns out to be a fugitive hiding from the slave-catchers. Annas parents earned their freedom down South but Anna still belongs to the slave-owner, and her parents could be arrested for stealing her. So could Maria, for helping Anna. Woven throughout, the history of Central Park adds to the storys underlying questions about the meaning of roots and displacement. Small, delicate illustrations by Lewis add interest at the opening of each chapter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)