Margaret Whitman BlairReseñas

This gripping Revolution-era account of slaves fighting on the side of the British contains exacting scholarship and resources. The uniqueness of the topic along with an edgy graphic layout easily grips the reader’s interest. Index, Sources, Epilogue, Timeline, Map on end sheets, Resource Guide with Webliography.

The early aviatrix fascinates me with their tenacity and bravery. Finding well written non-fiction about these women who broke social rules to follow their passions is hard to find, but Margaret Whitman Blair does an outstanding job of telling of the powder puff derby of 1929. Twenty women started in California and most finished in Ohio having flown across the country using mostly railroad lines as navigational markings. This story follows those that experienced mechanical breakdowns that nearly killed them, illnesses caused by dehydration, freezing temperatures, and included some serious discussions of sabotage. From this brave cluster of women, professional pilots would be nurtured through the Ninety-Nines. National Geographic does a wonderful job of including historical pictures, maps, background information, and visuals that make this race come alive to the reader. Ms. Blair presents a wonderful tail of true heroism in feminism.

This was a recommended read for supplementing a unit on the American Revolution. I found it to be well written and nicely punctuated with pictures of paintings, portraits, and photographs of actual primary documents from the time. However, my 7th grade students did not like the book and openly showed their boredom and disinterest when I tried to read it to them. I gave up on reading this book to them after only getting about halfway through it, but I would still consider using it with a slightly older class sometime in the future. It is too long to successfully read to a class, but students could be assigned to read it individually and respond to questions afterwards. After answering questions on paper individually, I planned to have students respond in a whole-class discussion on whether or not they would have taken the risks and faced the hardships these people did just for a fragile promise of freedom.

This is probably not the American Revolution you were taught about in school. This is the other side of the story; the story of thousands of African Americans, slave and free, who also fought for liberty -- against the colonists.

Blair weaves a historical narrative that follows the tragic stories of thousands of African-Americans who fought for the freedom the colonists refused to give them. They were enslaved by the colonists, betrayed by the British, and suffered discrimination at the hands of the Loyalists they had supported. But they never gave up the struggle for their freedom.

This is a complex historical and political narrative, told in excellent expository style. The reader not only gets an in-depth picture of the forces of prejudice, economics, and politics that the slaves fought against, it also profiles the historical figures that played a part in this story.

Verdict: Hand this book to middle school and high school students who are interested in history - and to students who don't think history is interesting. Read it yourself to get an important look at a portion of our nation's history you may have missed. And, of course, pair it with Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains.

ISBN: 978-1426305900; Published January 2010 by National Geographic; Borrowed from the library

The American Revolution was a war for freedom, but freedom for whom? At the time, the only ones who were truly free were white males. Slavery was still supported by the government, with no end in sight as slave labor was necessary to support the plantations and production of goods. British colonial governor Lord Dunmore of Virginia, faced with colonists' rebellion in 1775, offered freedom to any slave (owned by a rebel) who would be willing to fight for the British. The slaves who answered that call fought, worked, and spied for the British during the American Revolution. They risked everything they had for freedom and the promise of a new start. At the end of the war, the British sent about 3,000 of them to Nova Scotia, and when that didn't work out as promised, about half of those were sent to start a new life back in Africa, in the colony of Sierra Leone. This is a fascinating look at a part of our history that isn't well known at all. Lots of images of documents, quotes and personal stories of the slaves involved as well as paintings and images of the time make this a stellar choice for 6th grade and up --especially appropriate for 8th graders, since they study American history.