Henry's Freedom Box By Ellen Levine

 

About Book

Title: Henry's Freedom Box
Author: Ellen Levine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson 
Genre: Historical Fiction
Major Book Awards: 2008 Caldecott Medal 
Recommended Age Range: 7 to 12
Appropriate Grade Levels: 1st to 7th Grade

Summary

This book written by Ellen Levine talks about Henry "Box" Brown, a man who ships himself to freedom in Philadelphia. Henry had grew up into slavery for the majority of his life. He was still working as a slave when he got married to Nancy and had children with her. One day his wife and children were sold in the slave market, something he has been worried about. Finding out his family was gone, he knew that he would never see them again. As time went by, Henry knew that he had to escape and went to Dr. Smith for help. Henry then got inside a box and was shipped successfully to a place with freedom, where there were no slaves. He arrived safely in Philadelphia. 

Evaluation - Would I Incorporate this book in the classroom?

This book was such a good read. I especially love the illustrations, as it seemed pretty realistic and the story overall. I find it interesting that shipping Henry to a free place is based on a true story and would definitely be a good read for 1st to 7th graders. I can see myself using this book in my classroom, but more for a social studies unit over slavery and the underground railroad. A great activity that students can do before having this book read to them is jot down things they know about slavery and share their thinking to the class. During the read aloud I can pause on certain pages [ex: slave children can be taken away from their families], as this is possible for some students to have known this or didn't. After the read aloud I can ask students what they learned from this book about slavery, how they were treated, what they were forced to do, and couldn't do. Hopefully this activity and book will allow students to learn about how slaves were treated back then and gain new insights on it.