Henry's Freedom Box

Henry's Freedom Box
     written by Ellen Levine

REVIEW

This is a true story in American history; the story of Henry "Box" Brown, one of the underground Railway's most famous runaway slaves. This picture book biography tells the story of how Henry Brown became a free man, no one's slave and celebrated his "birthday" March 30, 1849, the day he became free. Although it's an E-Everybody book, it is a story for all ages.

Henry lost his mother and family as a child. He later watched his own family sold away from him forever. He finally decided to escape to freedom, created an ingenios plan and with help and support was successful in his 350 mile escape.

Kadir Nelson created the illustrations using an old lithograph from the 1850s as his inspiration. He used crosshatched pencil lines with layers of applied watercolor and oil paint to achieve the look and feel of a lithograph in his illustrations.  He used cutaways to show the onboard ship travel while contained in a box.

Kadir won the Caldecott Honor for his work in 2008. His illustrations are easily recognizable for their emotion, strength and dignity of spirit. Watch the trailer...then read the book!

Think what courage it must have taken to escape to freedom!


ISBN: 978-0-439-77733-9


Henry"s Freedom Box from Roxanne Clement on Vimeo.