Journey To Freedom

In classes that I have been taking in the College of Education at University of Iowa, one of the messages my classmates and I are taught is open up our future classrooms to diversity. This isn't always the easiest thing to do especially when you teach in a school district like the one I grew up in, about 98% of the students were Caucasian. I think part of being an American has to do with all the struggles we have over come in our history. Children in schools should have the opportunity to learn about these struggles and be proud of how this great nation came to be.

The book Journey to Freedom would be a great book to share with your class when discussing the topic of the underground railroad and slavery. The reason why I would choose this book compared to any other book that has to do with the underground railroad is because Joshua, the main character is eight years old. The story is told through his point-of-view and students can relate to the character in many ways. I especially like the page when Joshua first sees and describes snow. During one of the most dangerous journey's in this child's life, he and his family are able to enjoy the first time of seeing snow, they don't even care that it will delay and make their journey to freedom even harder. However, Joshua doesn't only describe happy things such as the first snow, he also makes a point of describing the hunger that has taken over his body. He knows that his parents are hungry too, but thankful that they are sacrificing their own food for their children's. 

I do believe this book also has some downfalls to it. I think the most important that I am going to focus on is its length. I realize that there is a lot of interesting information that needs to be told in this book, but there is no way that a kindergarten or first grade class will be able to sit through that entire book. It must be read to an older class that has then attention span to sit and stay focused for that long. 

Throughout the story there are many educational facts that are added in to make this book even more appealing for teachers to read to their students. There is so much history from this time period that it can become confusing to students. In the back of the book there is also a message from the author, Courtni C., Wright. It is just more facts that were not added in the book that are very important about this event. I think this little section in the back could be also read in the beginning before the story to set the tone and prepare students for what the story is about.