Book Description
for Chasing Freedom by Nikki Grimes and Michele Wood
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
In 1904, when Harriet Tubman spoke at a Women’s Suffrage Convention, she was introduced by Susan B. Anthony. Here Grimes imagines that the two of them had tea prior to the event, and that they reminisced about their lives and shared stories from their pasts. This device allows the author to share a lot of biographical details and give a good account of each woman’s accomplishments. But what’s especially interesting is the many ways their lives intersected—they were fighting for each other’s causes, of course, but sometimes there was a direct connection, as when Susan B. Anthony’s younger brother Merritt provided shelter to John Brown and his followers, many of whom had been recruited by Harriet Tubman. Each double-page spread has a full-page illustration painted in a distinctive naive style. (Ages 8–14)
CCBC Choices 2016. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2016. Used with permission.