VOYA
Fourteenyearold Roxanna is thrust into 1836 preabolition antislavery activity after her mother and brother die in a riverboat accident. She now lives with her father, a prominent traveling judge, and with household servants. Joss, a freed slave, is as much an older sister as attendant to Roxanna, a relationship between races that is neither acknowledged nor accepted in their world. When her father confides to Roxanna that their home is a stop on the Underground Railway, she also learns that slave catchers are in the area and that Joss's husbandtobe is no longer safe. In her father's absence, Roxanna devises a plan to escort Joss and Gideon to safety; however, this scheme requires that Roxanna pass as an older woman traveling with her slaves. She will need to conquer her fear of the river that has haunted her since her mother and brother died. The strength of this historical novel can be found in the character of Joss and in Johnston's expertise about the complexities of runaway slaves, the Underground Railway, and related issues. Although the character of Roxanna does grow as she faces her fears and learns about complex issues, her thinking is sometimes shallow. This discrepancy and the improbable inclusion of her dog in the travel party take away from the overall impact of the story. Appended information, unusual in a novel, includes author's notes and related recipes. This title would serve as an appropriate supplement to a discussion of the Underground Railroad in history classrooms. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 1999, Avon/Camelot, Ages 12 to15,192p, $15. Reviewer: JoAnn Mullen
Library Journal
Gr 5-8-Roxana Grey, a 14-year-old living in Indiana in 1836, knows about the evils of slavery, and her father, a judge, has told her harrowing stories of the mounting political tensions between abolitionists and slave owners. Leaving for Washington, where he hopes to convince lawmakers that slavery will destroy the nation forever, Judge Grey leaves Roxana in charge of the family estate, which, she learns as he is about to depart, is a station on the Underground Railroad. She takes courage and strength from her nursemaid Joss, a former slave whom she loves like a sister. When she learns that slave hunters have been spotted nearby, she fears that they will kidnap Joss and Gideon Mapes, Joss's fianc . Still haunted by the steamboat accident that killed her mother and younger brother two years earlier, Roxana faces her fear of the water and transports Joss and Gideon upriver to safety in Cincinnati, OH, where they will seek a temporary safe haven with Harriet Beecher Stowe, Roxana's former teacher and outspoken abolitionist. The riverboat journey in which Roxana poses as a Southern lady traveling with two slaves is full of dramatic tension, providing the novel's best moments, and Johnston's exhaustive historical research offers a richly detailed portrait of the times, from the bustling traffic and colorful passengers on the Ohio River to the ugly apartheid that will inevitably plunge the country into civil war. Recommend that students read this novel along with Johnston's Harriet: The Life and World of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Beech Tree, 1996).- William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
