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  1 Africa Is My Home: A CHILD OF THE AMISTAD
Author: Edinger, Monica Illustrator: Byrd, Robert
 
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Class: Fiction
Age: 10-14
Language: English
LC: PZ7.E241
Grade: 5-9
Print Run: 10000
ISBN-13: 9780763650384
LCCN: 2012947752
Imprint: Candlewick Press
Pub Date: 10/08/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $17.99
  Hardcover
Physical Description: 55 pages, unnumbered sequence of pages : color illustrations ; 24 cm. H 9.38", W 7.88", D 0.5", 0.9625 lbs.
LC Series:
Brodart Sources: Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Teen
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles
Bibliographies:
Awards: Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
New York Times Notable Books
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
School Library Journal Starred Reviews
Starred Reviews: School Library Journal
TIPS Subjects: Historical Fiction
Social Issues
African American & Black
BISAC Subjects: JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / Africa
JUVENILE FICTION / African American & Black
JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / United States / 19th Century
JUVENILE FICTION / Places / United States
LC Subjects: Africa, Fiction
Amistad (Schooner), Fiction
Slavery, Fiction
Slavery, Juvenile fiction
Slaves, Fiction
SEARS Subjects: Africa, Fiction
Amistad (Schooner), Fiction
Slaves, Fiction
Reading Programs: Accelerated Reader Level: 5.3 , Points: 1.0
Lexile Level: 890
Reading Counts Level: 5.7 , Points: 4.0
 
Annotations
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles | 10/01/2013
Sold into slavery by her father, nine-year-old Magulu boards the 'Amistad' and begins a painstaking journey that will take her back home after a trial in which John Quincy Adams finds in favor of Africans' rights. 64pp., Color Ill.
Starred Reviews:
School Library Journal | 08/01/2013
Gr 4-8--The events surrounding the abduction, mutiny, and legal trials of the Amistad Africans have been retold in a number of books, but few are told from the point of view of the children on the ship. In this novel based on the experiences of a real person, nine-year-old Magulu sails for seven weeks to Cuba on a slave ship. After being sold, she boards the Amistad. A rebellion leads to fighting and eventual jail time and several trials. Now 12 years old, she and the other children are finally declared free and allowed to return home. How she earns her passage and an education are part of this remarkable story of resilience, faith, and hope. Byrd's ink and watercolor illustrations show lush green areas of West Africa; as Magulu travels, the colors darken until she is returned to Africa. Highly detailed illustrations contrast life and dress in Africa with those in Cuba and Connecticut. The maps and recurring dream scenes are lovely and intriguing. Interspersed throughout the book are primary-image sources. Edinger gives Magulu a voice of her own as she narrates her story. The child's character is fleshed out as readers watch her grow from age nine when she is pawned during a drought to adulthood when she becomes a teacher in her beloved homeland. With more than 40 stunning illustrations, this unique narrative should find an appreciative audience. Glynis Jean Wray, Ocean County Library, Toms River, NJ. 64p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013.
Journal Reviews
BookPage | 11/13/2013
Ages 10-up. Born in Mendeland, known today as Sierra Leone, 9-year-old Margu enjoys the lush green of her homeland until drought causes her to be pawned for rice and later forced into slavery. Monica Edinger's illustrated tale of historical fiction, told in a longer picture book format, follows the girl's fears as she makes the seven-week voyage across the Atlantic aboard the Spanish slave ship, the Amistad. Although most children's literature about the Middle Passage focuses on the hopelessness of entering a life of slavery, this narration describes Margu's unusual situation. While aboard the Amistad, a slave named Cinque picks the chain locks and leads a mutiny that results in the murder of most of the ship's crew. When the ship is finally captured and the slaves are taken to New Haven, Connecticut, Margu and three other children live with the jailer's family as the trial against Cinque and his fellow slaves goes all the way to the Supreme Court and drags out over several years. Accompanied by archival reproductions, news accounts of the time period and Byrd's colorful and detailed artwork, Margu's story relates her curiosity about the strange smells, sounds, clothing, animals and buildings she encounters, as well as her unyielding dream to return to Africa. When the Supreme Court deems Margu and the Amistad passengers free, her dream becomes a reality and her return trip, with a pleasant cabin, plenty of food and walks along deck, is completely different than her initial voyage. For readers wondering about the real Margu, Edinger offers more information in a concluding author's note. Finding beauty amid tragedy, Africa Is My Home offers middle grade readers a remarkable glimpse of this overlooked yet significant moment in American history. BookPage Children’s Corner Web Exclusive Review. BOOKPAGE, c2013.
Booklist | 11/01/2013
Grades 3-6. This fictionalized version of a true account gives readers a look into a neglected piece of history: the story of the Amistad told from a child's point of view. We are introduced to 9-year-old Magulu, who is sold into slavery and ends up a passenger on the slave ship Amistad. After a mutiny, Magulu finds herself in New England with three other child passengers, where their freedom is fought over all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Magulu spends time going to school, learning English, and meeting supporters who fight for her right to return to Africa. Edinger fills her novel with facts, research, and rich historical details. The storybooklike narrative of a child torn between two worlds is captivating, and Byrd's finely lined color illustrations add to the story, as do reproductions of historical documents. An author's note gives readers additional information and the inspiration as to where Edinger found her source material. Thompson, Sarah Bean. 64p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 11/01/2013
R. Gr. 4-7. "It is hard to imagine, harder to remember," says Magulu-also known as Margru and later as Sarah Kinson-of the time that her father was forced to pawn her to slave traders to continue to feed his family. Edinger fictionalizes this account of a girl who was aboard the Amistad, the ship that was the site of a slave rebellion in 1839, and traces her life from Mendeland in West Africa, through her account of the revolt, to her life in America during and after the trial to decide whether the children aboard would remain free, and then to her return to Africa as a teacher. The prose is taut, and Magulu has a friendly voice, while Byrd's sprightly, delicately lined ink and watercolor illustrations are filled with deep visual detail. A few archival document reproductions are interspersed, captioned in Magulu's voice, adding to the sense that readers are having a conversation with the past. Edinger glosses over the horrors of the Middle Passage, instead focusing on Magulu's wonder at the unfamiliar things around her, but a general understanding of the slave trade is necessary to contextualize the voyage of the Amistad. This would therefore make a useful brief fictional complement to Myers' Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom (BCCB 5/98) or an addition to an historical study of the history of slavery; it's also a solid narrative choice to hand to a biography junkie. An author's note explaining what's fictional and what's not, a bibliography for further reading, and source notes for photographs are included. TA. 64p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2013.
Horn Book | 11/01/2013
Intermediate. Edinger creates a fictional first-person voice, undergirded by extensive research, for Margru, one of four Mende children aboard the Amistad, and through her eyes relates her enslavement in Africa, the revolt aboard ship during which Cinque and the other Mende took control of the Amistad, and the captives' two-year stay in Connecticut while their case for mutiny was being tried. Edinger avoids sensationalism without underselling the more disturbing parts of the story (the horrors of the Middle Passage, for instance, are evoked in six stark sentences on a black double-page spread). The uncertainty of Margru's situation and the peril faced by Cinque and the other mutineers keep tension high. Byrd's pen-and-watercolor illustrations use detailed but informal lines to both embellish and extend the story, and they share space in the open and varied book design with archival images and boxes containing excerpts from newspapers and other contemporary sources; periodic full-page vignettes show Margru dreaming of home and foreshadow her eventual return to Africa. An author's note describes Edinger's motivation in seeking out Margru's story and traces some of her research methods, but it is her skill in imagining Margru's life from those original sources that opens up this episode in history to young readers. anita l. burkam. 64pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2013.
Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2014
2. Edinger creates a fictional first-person voice for Margru, one of four Mende children aboard the Amistad, and through her eyes relates her enslavement in Africa, the shipboard revolt, and the captives' two-year stay in Connecticut while their mutiny case was being tried. Edinger avoids sensationalism without underselling the more disturbing parts of the story. Byrd's pen-and-watercolor illustrations embellish and extend the story. Bib. alb. 64pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014.
Kirkus Reviews | 08/15/2013
In this text-heavy picture book, Edinger fictionalizes the story of Margru, a child whom slave traders transported in 1839 from Mendeland, West Africa, to Cuba and then to the United States on the Spanish slave ship the Amistad. Margru's father pawns his daughter at 9 in exchange for rice. When he is unable to redeem her, she is sold off to traders and forced to endure the Middle Passage. The child narrator effectively conveys her confusion at being treated savagely by people whose language and intentions she does not understand, as well as the meager comfort she finds in her two friends, Kagne and Teme, who are purchased along with her in Cuba. Throughout the story, Margru's dreams of home appear within round frames, thick with the flora and fauna of Africa. Edinger and Byrd punctuate the story with reproductions and snippets from archives, newspaper clippings, maps, letters and engravings--all of which reinforce its authenticity. While this book makes an important part of history accessible to child readers, it is not without flaws. Its illustrations are frequently cramped and offer minimal variety in the characters' skin tones and facial features. The narrative occasionally skips weeks or months without alerting readers, making parts of the story befuddling. Nevertheless, this book gives middle-grade readers a starting point for understanding this landmark episode in American history, in which slaves fought through the court system and won. (author's note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-14). 64pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013.
Publishers Weekly | 09/09/2013
Ages 10-up. In her first book for children, Edinger fuses fact and fiction, despair and hope in the story of a nine-year-old girl taken from her Sierra Leona homeland. After being sold to slave traders, Margru is banished to the "dark and airless" hold of a ship bound for Cuba, represented by a stark, all-black spread: "Seven weeks of chains and shackles. Seven weeks of sobs and cries." In Havana, a white man buys Margru and three other children, and they are forced onto the Amistad. Margru provides an immediate account of the infamous slave mutiny onboard and the perpetrators' imprisonment and trials in Connecticut; the Africans are eventually freed and sent home, where Margru later becomes a teacher. Margru's descriptions of the strangeness of life in America and her homesickness for Sierra Leona are incisive and heartbreaking. Meticulously incorporated throughout the book's design, along with reproductions of archival materials, Byrd's (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!) folk art-style ink-and-watercolor illustrations vividly capture the landscapes and people of West Africa, Cuba, and the U.S. Author's agent: Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media. (Oct.). 64p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013.
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