Freedom Song

Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown is a children’s book written by Sally Walker. Sally Walker has been writing books since she was a young child. It all started when she was daydreaming about writing books in elementary school. Her father was a storyteller and both of her parents were very supportive of her writing. She believe that every young child should have a library card so that they have time to wander around the library daydreaming and time to read what they enjoy.

                This book is about a young boy named Henry that grows up in slavery. He often sung different songs depending on what he was doing. During the night he sang a freedom song to himself. When he grew up he married and had children. He sang love songs because his heart was full. One day he came home from work and his family was sold by their master. After this, he put himself in a box and was shipped to freedom land in hopes of finding his family.

                Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown is a historical fictional picture book. This book is historical because it is written about the slave era. It is a fictional story that tells about the lives of slaves.  I would consider this book to be high quality because it is accurate according to history books. Slaves really did find ways to run away to the land of freedom and they really did take the Underground Railroad.

                I enjoyed Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown. The illustrations were done by Sean Qualls. He used such a great technique that really enhanced the strength of the story. The paintings have great depth and texture. I liked how his paintings were somewhat realistic.

Discussion Questions:
·         What are slaves?
·         Why do you think Henry sang?
·         Why did Henry make up a freedom song?
·         Why did Henry stop singing freedom songs and start singing family songs?
·         Why was Henry’s family sold?
·         Do you think Henry cut his finger at work on purpose?
·         Why did he ship himself in a wooden box?
·         Do you think he found his family?

Activities:

·         For the whole class, have the students as a group come up with a song that represents their class. Have the students write about their song and explain why they chose what they chose.

·         For individual students, have the students map out the journey that Henry took in his wooden box. Build on this activity by giving the students different maps from that time period.

Other books by this author:
·         Winnie
·         Druscilla’s Halloween
·         The Vowel Family
·         The 18 Penny Goose
·         The Search for Antartic Dinosaurs
·         Early Bird Earth Science
·         Nature Watch series
·         Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed

Resource:

Walker, S. M., & Qualls, S. (2012). Freedom song: The story of Henry "Box" Brown. New York:                  Harper.