Books like If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad

I picked up Ellen Levine’s book, “…If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad,” after seeing it suggested for second graders. I found it to be an excellent explanation of the Underground Railroad, providing me with things that I not only forgot I knew but also information that I am sure I didn’t learn in school. Levine’s format is very interesting. Rather than grouping the information under various headings, she uses a question-and-answer format. I also liked that these questions were listed in a table of contents, something that few books at this level have. Some of the questions and subsets included “Could you buy yourself?” (meaning a slave, of course), “How would you trick the slave hunters?”, and “Was everyone in the North against slavery?” Levine provides a great deal of information to these questions. She also includes real-life examples. One of them came in the form of some of that “information I never knew” – she tells us how the Underground Railroad got its name. Apparently, a slave named Tice Davids was running from his owner. The owner saw him cross the river, but when he reached the shore, he vanished from sight. After looking for hours, the owner said, “He must have gone on an underground road!” I really enjoyed the narrative form this explanation took (much better than my brief summary), providing enough details to make it come alive, but not so many that you suspect it of being fictionalized. The same is true with various other explanations. I also really enjoyed the black and white drawings that come in this book – at least, the 1988 version (from what I’ve seen of the newer version, it appears more colorful). These drawings are very detailed and expressive. I especially enjoyed the portrayals of the various examples of hiding places along the underground railroad. The book is 63 pages long, and has a lot of information on each page, along with the illustrations. My second grade daughter really enjoyed it; when asked what the most interesting part was, she said “everything but the introduction.” (She went on to inform me that introductions are almost always boring, so apparently this is a deep-seated resentment she holds.) She liked the way it was presented, and enjoyed studying the drawings as well as the text. Levine does an excellent job of capturing the reader’s attention – yes, even if the reader is a grown woman who is supposed to be making lunch for the kids. I have to confess that I had a hard time putting it down. It wouldn’t work as a read-aloud book for restless toddlers, but you may be able to hold the interest of kindergardeners and first graders with it. Overall, a very intriguing and enjoyable book.