Overview
Based on a true storyPriscilla is only four years old when her mother is sold to another master. All Priscilla has to remember her mother by are the hollyhocks she planted by the cow pond. At age ten, Priscilla is sold to a Cherokee family and continues her life as a slave. She keeps hope for a better life alive by planting hollyhocks wherever she goes. At last, her forced march along the Trail of Tears brings a chance encounter that leads to her freedom.
Includes an author's note with more details about this fascinating true story as well as instructions for making hollyhock dolls.
Synopsis
Based on a true story
Priscilla is only four years old when her mother is sold to another master. All Priscilla has to remember her mother by are the hollyhocks she planted by the cow pond. At age ten, Priscilla is sold to a Cherokee family and continues her life as a slave. She keeps hope for a better life alive by planting hollyhocks wherever she goes. At last, her forced march along the Trail of Tears brings a chance encounter that leads to her freedom.
Includes an author's note with more details about this fascinating true story as well as instructions for making hollyhock dolls.
Children's Literature
Priscilla is only a young girl when her master sells her mother to another slave owner. Old Sylvia steps in to take care of Priscilla and comforts Priscilla by telling how her mother loved hollyhocks and planted them along the fence. Priscilla also learns how to create hollyhock dolls, which helps her feel closer to her mother. After six years, Priscilla must begin work in the master's house, learning how to be invisible to avoid his punishment and finding peace among her mother's hollyhocks. When the master dies, Priscilla gathers hollyhock seeds and places them in her pocket. She is sold to a Cherokee family where she spreads her hollyhock seeds to create another peaceful place to visit on Sundays. When the Indians are forced to leave to make room for the white man, Priscilla again hides hollyhock seeds in her pocket. Along the journey, Priscilla sees a man, Basil Silkwood, who once visited her first master's house and treated Priscilla with kindness. Massa Silkwood purchases Priscilla from the Cherokee family and raises her not as a slave but as a daughter. Broyles uses the true story of a young girl named Priscilla who spent her life in two slave homes and traveled the "Trail of Tears" before becoming free. The "Author's Note" tells the true events on which the story is based and includes directions to create hollyhock dolls like Priscilla's. Alter's acrylic illustrations simply portray the powerful story events. Reviewer: Barbara Wheatley
Editorials
Children's Literature -
Priscilla is only a young girl when her master sells her mother to another slave owner. Old Sylvia steps in to take care of Priscilla and comforts Priscilla by telling how her mother loved hollyhocks and planted them along the fence. Priscilla also learns how to create hollyhock dolls, which helps her feel closer to her mother. After six years, Priscilla must begin work in the master's house, learning how to be invisible to avoid his punishment and finding peace among her mother's hollyhocks. When the master dies, Priscilla gathers hollyhock seeds and places them in her pocket. She is sold to a Cherokee family where she spreads her hollyhock seeds to create another peaceful place to visit on Sundays. When the Indians are forced to leave to make room for the white man, Priscilla again hides hollyhock seeds in her pocket. Along the journey, Priscilla sees a man, Basil Silkwood, who once visited her first master's house and treated Priscilla with kindness. Massa Silkwood purchases Priscilla from the Cherokee family and raises her not as a slave but as a daughter. Broyles uses the true story of a young girl named Priscilla who spent her life in two slave homes and traveled the "Trail of Tears" before becoming free. The "Author's Note" tells the true events on which the story is based and includes directions to create hollyhock dolls like Priscilla's. Alter's acrylic illustrations simply portray the powerful story events. Reviewer: Barbara WheatleySchool Library Journal
Gr 2-4- Over the course of 10 years, an enslaved girl works hard for two different masters. Priscilla, not even six when her mother was sold, shares a bond with Old Sylvia, who helps her remember her mother by making dolls from the hollyhocks that Priscill's mother planted. The child's dreams of freedom unfold through descriptive language, and their intensity is strengthened by the freedom suggested by these delicate flower ladies gliding on water. While serving her first temperamental master, Priscilla meets a cheerful visitor named Massa Basil Silkwood, who takes an interest in her and does not "hold with slavery." When the first master dies, Priscilla stands on the auction block with hollyhock seeds in her apron pocket and is purchased by a Cherokee master. When the Indians are rounded up and marched along the "Trail of Tears," she again meets Silkwood, who buys her and sets her free. Raised among 15 adopted Silkwood siblings, Priscilla feels the safety of a true home where she and the hollyhocks are free to grow and bloom. Told in descriptive language accompanied by engaging acrylic paintings, this fictionalized story about a real child who found freedom in an unlikely way offers a unique perspective on slavery. No source notes are given, but an author's note adds details about Priscill's life and the variety of hollyhocks that bear her name.-Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD
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