Reviews

A wonderful free verse novel about a completely unknown community of runaway slaves. The narration was compelling as nine year old Grace is forced to leave her mother to move to the Big House to serve the Allen's. After an unfortunate outburst about the injustices Grace witnesses and is forced to endure, Grace must hash together a desperate escape with her family into the nearby but deadly swamp. What she soon finds is that while the living is dangerous and unpredictable, she and her family are Free.

The free verse moves the story along though I never found the style to be an asset. A straight up historical fiction novel would have been just as powerful.

Grades 5 and up.

misspentdays's review against another edition

Go to review page

TL, DR: Excellent use of verse format to bring to the life of a slave in a middle grade appropriate way. It also highlights the little known story of the Maroons of The Great Dismal Swamp.

I'm going to spoiler tag this, although I feel the little bits I mention would in no way ruin the read.

Spoiler

Nine-year-old Grace has lived her entire life in the slave cabins, but now her light skin causes her to be summoned to the big house. After promising her family that she will keep her eyes down and her mouth closed, she tries to stay out of the way of Missus. At nine, she does not yet realize that there is no winning with such a hard-hearted woman. Grace’s life changes when a fellow house slave, Jordan, makes a run for freedom. To make up for the unbudgeted expense of replacement, Master decides to sell off Grace’s toddler brothers along with her mother. Grace, remembering the advice of Uncle Jim, her stepfather, hears auction and knows the family must run.
Unbound provides glimpses into slave life as filtered through Grace’s young eyes. Some of the horrors are made obvious in what isn’t said, because Grace doesn’t understand or know about it herself. For example, Grace swears she doesn’t have a father, but when she see the Master and his blue eyes, it becomes obvious to the reader who her father is. It also explains Missus’s special venom directed at a child.
Ann E Burg is the critically acclaimed author of Serafina’s Promise and All the Broken Pieces. She has been recognized by the ALA Best Books List and the NAACP Image Awards. Here she uses the true story of the “Maroons” who found refuge from slavery not by running North, but by hiding in The Great Dismal Swamp along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. Burg brings the cruelties of life on the plantation to life with a deft hand that keeps the reader’s interest with intense story and a quick pace. The story, while very intense, never becomes so graphic that it loses a middle grade reading audience.

This is an excellent choice for a cross-curricular tie in with Black History month or for American Studies. I highly recommend it for seventh grade readers.

book_nut's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Hm. Would have liked it better if it wasn't a white woman writing about a slave experience.

thomasmannia's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This book was very intriguing and poetic. I only wish that we could have seen more about what happened at the plantation after Grace and her family escaped. I doubt it will happen, but I would love to read a book from Aunt Tempie's point of view that tells about the aftermath and gives us more information about her backstory, including how she became involved in helping OleGeorgeCooper help runaway slaves. Overall, I would rate this book a 4.5/5.

yapha's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This free verse novel follows the story of Grace as she is torn from her mother and brothers and sent to work in the Big House, due to her light skin. Grace and her family are slaves on a plantation near the Great Dismal Swamp. Only nine years old, Grace promises her mother that she will keep her eyes down and her thoughts to herself, but she sees new things every day that cause her to question why things are the way they are. The injustice of it all becomes too much for her, threatening her entire family. A powerful look at the horrors of slavery and the bravery and resilience of those who lived through it. Highly recommended for grades 4 & up.

karibaumann's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Great story. I did not know about the Great Dismal Swamp being a place where there were settlements of folks who escaped slavery.

More...