Henry's Freedom Box

Henry's Freedom Box
Ellen Levine
Schilastic Press, 2007
Pages: 40
Reading Level: 4-8
Genre: Non-Fiction/Biography

Henry is a little boy who was born into slavery. While he was still a young boy his master died and he was sold to another man and separated from his mother. He worked hard for his new master, and when He got older he met a girl with whom he fell in love with. They got permission from their masters and got married. They were lucky because their masters let them live together even though they had different masters. Henry and his wife had three children, and they loved them very much. Henry's wife was worried because her master's business wasn't doing very well and she was afraid that the children would get sold. One day while Henry was working his friend came and told him that his wife and children had just been sold. He was devastated. He decided to try to get free. He burned his hands on purpose so that his master would let him stay home from work, then he got a white man who believed slavery was wrong to put him into a big crate and mail him North to freedom. It was a long hard trip, but Henry made it. From that day on he had the middle name of "Box."

I think all children should read this book. It teaches how slavery ruined lives and that discrimination against race is wrong, which I believe is important to learn at a young age.

Problems this book could cause: I'm afraid this book might convince children to get a friend to help them mail themselves somewhere! That would be terrible.

My reaction: I thought this was a great biography. If no one had told me it was a true story I would have thought it was just a good fiction story

My rating: ****