| Night Boat to Freedom 
Based on several different narratives from the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Collection, Raven's moving story is full of particulars that lend it authenticity.
School Library Journal
Awards IRA Notable Books for a Global Society IRA Teachers' Choices Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Beacon of Freedom Award Nominee Book Sense Children's Pick CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI) NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies Booklist Editors' Choice Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Master List Indiana Young Hoosier Award Master List Kentucky Blue Grass Award Master List Louisiana YR Choice Book Award Master List |
Praise “A powerful new picture book. Watercolor paintings . . . match the mood and theme.”—The Chicago Sun-Times “Words and pictures work perfectly together, making sound from silence and light from darkness.”—Booklist, Starred Review “Lewis’s watercolors beautifully capture the loving relationship between Granny Judith and Christmas John. . . . Handsome and affecting.”—Kirkus Reviews “A rich story for adults and children to share.”—School Library Journal “The runaways’ success is joyfully triumphant, but perhaps the most moving aspect of the work is Lewis’s watercolor paintings, which skillfully manipulate light and shadow to create two parallel worlds.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books |
 School Library Journal
Gr 2-6–Christmas John, 12, lives in a pine-board cabin with Granny Judith, who was enslaved when strangers lured her to their ship with a piece of red flannel. Now on a plantation in Kentucky, Granny Judith and Christmas John help others escape across the river to the free state of Ohio by taking advantage of John's youth–he's young enough to avoid notice, and old enough to row a boat across and back. Granny Judith stitches a quilt, incorporating the colors the escapees wear. What color is freedom tonight? As the quilt approaches completion and the risks grow, the time comes for their own escape. Based on several different narratives from the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Collection, Raven's moving story is full of particulars that lend it authenticity. Lewis's realistic watercolors use texture and shadow to an impressionistic effect, communicating the utter darkness in which Christmas John works, and the emotion contained in a single color. An author's note shows how Raven pieced together her story like Granny Judith's quilt, lending a context that makes this a rich story for adults and children to share.–Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
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Black History Month
Bookshelves swell with black history
Author: Susie Wilde; Correspondent
I couldn't have written this column when I began reviewing children's books a quarter century ago. That was before Black History Month became a widely recognized event. Back then I was delighted to find any characters of color in a mainstream children's book. Now African-American history books for children come in all lengths, genres and styles. Margot Theis Raven's "Night Boat to Freedom" (FSG) ages 7-10) tells the story of a young slave boy named Christmas growing up in Kentucky "a boat trip away from Ohio and freedom." His family was sold away and he has been raised by Granny Judith, an older woman who dyes threads and weaves them into fabrics. When Christmas grows old enough, she urges him to risk his life rowing slaves to freedom, each time asking him what color the passenger wore. Raven's prose -- and her use of colors as metaphors for love and freedom -- combine with E.B. Lewis' illustrations -- which often place bits of bright hue against blue-black and monochromatic background -- to show the connection between colors and feelings. |
State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL) Celebrate Black History Month Author: LOIS HENDERLONG CORRESPONDENT Telling about triumph over bigotry and slavery is what makes these books recognizing February as Black History Month such hard-hitting, essential reading. There are books for every age level, assuring that no child is too young or too old to find inspiration in the accomplishments of black Americans. "Night Boat to Freedom" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16) features lush watercolors by Coretta Scott King Award and Honor winner E.B. Lewis, and a carefully researched historically based story by Margot Theis Raven. Telling how a young boy in Kentucky rows slaves to freedom across the river to the free state of Ohio, the picture book details how perilous these journeys became. Children will be on the edge of their seats as Christmas John risks all to give freedom to so many, and finally takes the ultimate chance by rowing himself and his grandmother away from oppression. As he hears the bloodhounds baying, he rows with all his might. How did he manage to do it so many times? As his grandmother told him, "What scares the head is best done with the heart." Atmospheric and dramatic, these illustrations fill the eyes. The narrative is bold and celebrates courage. Even a small child will understand how high the stakes were for those who dared to risk the punishment of whips and chains. |
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| Earl Bradley Lewis was born on December 16, 1956, in Philadelphia, PA. As early as the third grade he displayed artistic promise. Inspired by two uncles, who were artists, Lewis decided he wanted to follow in their footsteps.
Lewis' work is part of major private collections and is displayed in galleries throughout the United States. Honoring Lewis, Barbara Bader's History on American Picture books will be including a description of Earl and his achievements as an artist. Currently, Earl Lewis is teaching illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and is a member of The Society of Illustrators in New York City. |
| Capital Times, The (Madison, WI) BOOKS SHOW RARE CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Author: Karyn Saemann Correspondent for The Capital Times
Really good books for and about African-American children are rare. "Night Boat to Freedom" by Margot Theis Raven with illustrations by E.B. Lewis is based on the true stories of former slaves as collected by the Great Depression's Federal Writers' Project. A 12-year-old enslaved African-American boy's grandmother persuades him to illegally ferry slaves to freedom across the river that separates Kentucky from the free state of Ohio. It's dangerous work, done under the cover of night in a rickety rowboat. But the boy, named Christmas John, continues despite the threat of being caught. Each night, when he returns, he tells his grandmother what color clothing passengers were wearing. Slowly, she fashions a quilt with a colored square representing what each had on. As a writer and illustrator team, Theis Raven and Lewis are responsible for one of the most stirring African-American children's books in recent years. "Circle Unbroken," released in 2004, won numerous national honors. Individually, Lewis' many illustrated titles include Jacqueline Woodson's "Coming On Home Soon," which won a 2004 Caldecott honor. In "Night Boat to Freedom" language flows smoothly and effortlessly. The text is longer than typical picture books, but never tiresome. The softly edged illustrations, that sometimes make striking use of color and at other times show characters shrouded in nighttime mists, are unforgettable. One of the most stirring illustrations depicts Christmas John's grandmother as a young woman, her head despondently in her hands as she grips the red cloth that slave traders used to lure her out of her African village. A slave ship is pulling her, and the red cloth, through a red-tainted ocean. |
Jane Addams Peace Association book awards. The Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA), the educational affiliate of WILPF, has given awards for children's books annually since 1953. Continuing in that tradition, more than 125 people attended this year's book awards ceremony in New York. Equal to the inspirational setting overlooking the United Nations with flags of different countries waving in the heavy breeze, were the speeches given by the winning books' authors and illustrators. The books were selected from among hundreds, meeting the criteria for most effectively addressing themes or topics that promote peace, justice, world community, and/or equality of the sexes and all races. Congratulations to the 54th Jane Addams Children's Book Awardees: Amy Lee-Tai, Felicia Hoshino, Cynthia Kadohata, Tim Tingle, Jeanne Rorex Bridges, Margot Theis Raven, E. B. Lewis, Russell Freedman, Elizabeth Winthrop. |
Inspiring tales of black history: King, Carver, Tubman and Christmas John come alive in four new books for youth
Author: The Chicago Sun-Times During the Depression, many writers interviewed and recorded the stories of former slaves in the Federal Writers' Project. Now, based on several of those recollections, comes a powerful new picture book, Night Boat to Freedom by Margot Theis Raven with pictures by E.B. Lewis (Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 40 pages, $16) for ages 8 and up. Christmas John and his Granny Judith were slaves who could see freedom in Ohio just across the river from their master's farm in Kentucky. Judith, who as a girl was enticed aboard a slave ship in Africa with pieces of red cloth, becomes a master colorist and quilter in America -- and red has become symbolic of both slavery and freedom. Urged on by his grandmother, Christmas John becomes a part of the Underground Railroad at age 12, rowing people across the river. The taut story of his work and finally their escape unfolds in simple but elegant language: "I grew so quiet you could've heard a sewin' needle fall on feathers. I was twelve summers grown and strong hulk of a boy, but I felt feeble as a baby knowin' what she wanted me to do." Watercolor paintings, from blue-black night to the colors of the freedom quilt and a hopeful daytime, match the mood and theme. |
Winston-Salem Journal (NC) Column: Young Reading NIGHT BOAT TO FREEDOM. By Margot Theis Raven. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Ages 8-12. 40 pages. $16. This beautiful, oversize picture book with illustrations by E.B. Lewis was inspired by true accounts gathered from former slaves during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration's Slave Narrative Collection. That collection is some of the most fascinating, stomach-turning, conscience-churning material I've ever read. But Night Boat to Freedom is uplifting. It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy sent by his grandmother to row fugitive slaves across the river at night to freedom. For two years, his oars slice through the dark waters in the middle of the inky night as he ferries his passengers to a new life and a new home. All the while, his grandmother sews a quilt, saying the journeys will end when she gets to the last square. The quilt is for the boy and for the final journey, which is to be his. However, he cannot and will not leave without his grandmother. |
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