Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom

The story isn’t in depth and it isn’t new. For you g readers it’s a great intro to the Underground Railroad, but the artwork is refreshing regardless of audience. The contrast between the struggles of night and the promises of a new day are wonderfully illustrated.

The emotional impact that this book has is incredible. The author/illustrator, Shane E. Evans, does a fantastic job with capturing the intensity of the life of families as they go on a journey to escape slavery. This is illuminated with the close-up images of the emotions on the families' faces, which appear on most of the pages. The darkness and saturated colors "convey a mood to the readers" (Temple, Martinez, & Yokota, 2011, p. 36) and maintain the seriousness of the situation with each turn of the page. The use of picture clues would help children with predicting word patterns and create a confidence as they read along with the story. The nature of this book takes on a serious tone because it is a serious subject, but I feel that it is light enough that it would appeal to a younger group of children and give them a starting foundation to the history of the Underground Railroad.References:Evans, S. E. (2011). Underground: Finding the light to freedom. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press.Temple, C., Martinez, M., & Yokota, J. (2011). Children's books in children's hands: An introduction to their literature. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Very informative for young readers.The illustrations paint a visual for his words.Will be a good selection for black history month.

Every human should absorb this book... And be reminded of the price of freedom! Well done!

Perfect level for my 3 and 5 year old in discussing the Underground railroad. The super short sentences and the dark shadowy pictures really captured their attention. There was a lot of opportunities of discussion using open ended questions for prompts. Why are they outside at night? Why would they want to be quiet? Look at their faces, what are they feeling? Why would they be scared? Why are there men with guns? Why are they sleeping outside? Where are they going? What is freedom? I realized that last one is a really hard concept for my very lucky, privileged little guys to grasp. In their minds freedom is life, for it to not exist is outside their understanding. We discussed freedom is living in our house, eating what we want, going to school, going where we want, and doing what we want within reason. Then we discussed how some people do not have these freedoms; some people do not have basic food or shelter. Just like in the book there people that help; there are ways we can help shine the light too. ❤Simple yet very thought provoking book.

Underground by Shane Evans is a story about people who try to escape slavery and do so, although they do loose some people in their journey. The book doesn't have very many words but the pictures and the very few words the book does have help communicate what is going on in the story. It would be a good book to start a young child on when you are first starting to learn about slavery. I enjoyed reading the book and it would be a book I would read to my children one day.

A family living in the bonds of slavery decides to make the dangerous attempt to find freedom. Along the way they find safe havens and friends of the Underground Railroad. The family members experience fear and fatigue along the way, but they keep going until they can wake up free to decide their own destinies. With its sparse text, this picture book relies more on striking images to communicate to young readers the risks that enslaved people took to escape from bondage, and the joys they experienced upon first reaching a free state. A brief author's note provides more information about the Underground Railroad, which parents and teachers can use to talk with young learners about the history of slavery in the United States.

Underground is one family's story of their quest to seek a better life -- a life of "freedom". The story paints a vivid picture, with very few words, about the fear and exhaustion the family faced as they tried to escape from slavery, as well as the kindness of some who helped them along the way.This would be a great book to introduce young children to the subject of "slavery". The illustrations are very dark in color, as the family begins their escape at night. As the family progresses along their journey toward freedom, the illustrations become brighter in color until the family and the reader can finally see the sun, lifting a baby in the process toward the sky in celebration.Recommended for Pre-school - grade 3 - (5/5 stars)

We were not expecting a children's book and our grandchildren (4, 7, & 9) could not understand what was going on.