Good Fortune

April 1, 2010
Gr 9 Up-Sarah, Anna, and Ayanna are the names used by one person over the course of her life. First she is Sarah, a slave on a plantation in Tennessee. Her days are full of endless labor, humiliation, and the threat of rape. She struggles to understand the meaning of freedom and to educate herself despite the danger. After witnessing a brutal whipping, she flees north to freedom. Barely surviving the harrowing journey, Sarah and her adopted brother arrive in Ohio, only to find that freedom is not as sweet as she had hoped. She changes her name to Anna and begins a new life, but she worries about loved ones left behind and is embittered by the severe restrictions and discrimination faced by free blacks. One of the more effective literary devices is how Anna's narration gradually shifts from slave patois to more refined speech as her education progresses. Ayanna was her name as a child in Africa, remembered in nightmares, where the memories of the murder of her mother, the horrifying ocean passage in the belly of a slave ship, and being separated from her brother on the auction block haunt her. The transitions between the dreams and waking life are occasionally jarring, but on the whole the narrative flows smoothly and is well paced. An author's note about fact and fiction in the book adds weight to the historical information included."Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2010
Grades 8-11 In the stirring narrative of young Sarah on a Tennessee plantation in the early nineteenth century, this lengthy debut novel tells an American slavery story, weaving together the brutal labor and threats of sexual assault with Sarahs memories of capture in Africa. When she escapes with her brother Daniel, she leaves behind her tender, adoptive mother and John, the young man she loves, and she discovers that escape does not mean freedom. As they reach Ohio, Sarah, now 14, dreams of education, but she encounters vicious prejudice, including the n-word (You have no idea what education is, and if you did, you wouldnt know what to do with it). She does know what education is, of course, and later she even establishes a school. With many spelled-out messages, Carters novel tries to fold in too much for one story, and in the long afterword, which distinguishes fact from fiction, she acknowledges plot contrivances. Despite these shortfalls, though, the harsh, realistic history will captivate readers, as will the brave young girls struggle and triumph.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)