Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2020 *Starred Review* Leaving in secret, “before Daddy’s boss knew, / before our lease was up,” Ruth Ellen and her parents rise before dawn, bid their relatives goodbye, and board the Silver Meteor, an early morning train bound for New York. The “colored car” grows more crowded at each stop, but north of Washington, D.C., they can legally sit in any car. They move to another, ignoring certain passengers’ silent hostility. Every mile carries this family toward “The Promised Land.” Reading a biography of Frederick Douglass, who had traveled north long ago, Ruth Ellen reflects, “We all running from / and running to / at the same time.” The free-verse text reads aloud gracefully, telling one family’s story with concise, resonant phrases and sensory details, while including allusions to history, religion, and culture, which a parent or teacher could discuss further. An appended note clarifies the term overground railroad, referring to the railways that enabled Black sharecroppers to escape the coercive tenant farms in the South and move northward. Created with cut-paper collage, graphite, pastel pencil, and watercolors, the captivating illustrations include strong, evocative character portrayals, beautifully composed landscapes, and unexpected combinations of patterns and colors that work together well. A memorable introduction to the Great Migration. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.