Book Descriptions
for Box by Carole Boston Weatherford and Michele Wood
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Bound by slavery, young Henry Brown and his seven siblings performed grueling plantation labor. Moved and abused at the whim of masters and vicious overseers, Henry eventually married, but was soon separated from his wife and children. He struggled to pay the price of their ownership, but they are moved out of state in a slave chain pass. Having lost all that is dear, he received an inspiration for escape as an answer to prayer, and hired a carpenter to build a shipping box just big enough to hold him. His two day trip by wagon, train, steamer, and cart to Philadelphia ended in freedom, but despite selling his book and song lyrics at abolitionist gatherings, the challenge of reuniting with his family remained insurmountable. Henry continued to share his story in a reenactment for anti-slavery audiences, and evaded bounty hunters by sailing to England, where he developed a new one-man show. There he remarried and had a daughter. This remarkable poetic account of devastation, resilience, ingenuity, and perseverance is told in six line stanzas, with each line representing one side of a box, and draws on Henry Brown's own writings. Masterful mixed media illustrations achieve the artist's goal of expressing suffering and hope while maintaining dignity and integrity. (Age 10 and older)
CCBC Choices 2021. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
A 2021 Newbery Honor Book
In a moving, lyrical tale about the cost and fragility of freedom, a New York Times best-selling author and an acclaimed artist follow the life of a man who courageously shipped himself out of slavery.
What have I to fear?
My master broke every promise to me.
I lost my beloved wife and our dear children.
All, sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine.
The breath of life is all I have to lose.
And bondage is suffocating me.
Henry Brown wrote that long before he came to be known as Box, he “entered the world a slave.” He was put to work as a child and passed down from one generation to the next — as property. When he was an adult, his wife and children were sold away from him out of spite. Henry Brown watched as his family left bound in chains, headed to the deeper South. What more could be taken from him? But then hope — and help — came in the form of the Underground Railroad. Escape!
In stanzas of six lines each, each line representing one side of a box, celebrated poet Carole Boston Weatherford powerfully narrates Henry Brown’s story of how he came to send himself in a box from slavery to freedom. Strikingly illustrated in rich hues and patterns by artist Michele Wood, Box is augmented with historical records and an introductory excerpt from Henry’s own writing as well as a time line, notes from the author and illustrator, and a bibliography.
In a moving, lyrical tale about the cost and fragility of freedom, a New York Times best-selling author and an acclaimed artist follow the life of a man who courageously shipped himself out of slavery.
What have I to fear?
My master broke every promise to me.
I lost my beloved wife and our dear children.
All, sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine.
The breath of life is all I have to lose.
And bondage is suffocating me.
Henry Brown wrote that long before he came to be known as Box, he “entered the world a slave.” He was put to work as a child and passed down from one generation to the next — as property. When he was an adult, his wife and children were sold away from him out of spite. Henry Brown watched as his family left bound in chains, headed to the deeper South. What more could be taken from him? But then hope — and help — came in the form of the Underground Railroad. Escape!
In stanzas of six lines each, each line representing one side of a box, celebrated poet Carole Boston Weatherford powerfully narrates Henry Brown’s story of how he came to send himself in a box from slavery to freedom. Strikingly illustrated in rich hues and patterns by artist Michele Wood, Box is augmented with historical records and an introductory excerpt from Henry’s own writing as well as a time line, notes from the author and illustrator, and a bibliography.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
