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A review by libscote
Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg
4.0
I really liked this one. Normally dialects, or improperly written English, drives me nuts, but Berg does it in a way that doesn't bother me. I should have known this, because I love Berg's other books.
Grace is being sent to the Big House to work. She's told to leave her questions about rightiness in her mind: why do some people get to eat more but work less? why do some people own others? what's happening in the smokehouse? When she accidentally says one thing too far, she and her family go on the run.
I had no idea that there were communities of ex-slaves living in the swamps in western Virginia. I assumed they all went north. Berg has written a beautiful story that will teach children about that. She also shows the way slavery dehumanizes people, but never in a way that's too graphic for her middle grade audience.
Grace is being sent to the Big House to work. She's told to leave her questions about rightiness in her mind: why do some people get to eat more but work less? why do some people own others? what's happening in the smokehouse? When she accidentally says one thing too far, she and her family go on the run.
I had no idea that there were communities of ex-slaves living in the swamps in western Virginia. I assumed they all went north. Berg has written a beautiful story that will teach children about that. She also shows the way slavery dehumanizes people, but never in a way that's too graphic for her middle grade audience.