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* Reading Rainbow Books
* International Reading Association Children's Book Award for Younger Readers
* A Notable Children's Book in the Field of Social studies
* A Children's Book-of-the-Month Selection
*Texas Bluebonnet Master List
* Kentucky Bluegrass Master List


미국에서 흑인 노예제도가 폐지되지 않았던 시절에 어머니와 헤어지고 다른 농장의 침모로 일하던 소녀 노예 클라라는 노에제도가 폐지된 오하이오주로 탈출하면 자유를 얻을 수 있다는 얘기를 듣게 됩니다. 그 당시 흑인 노예의 탈출을 도와주는 Underground Railroad라는 비밀 탈출네트워크를 알게 된 클라라는 조그만 천조각을 모아서 탈출로를 표시하는 퀼트를 만들기로 하고...






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Paperback: 40 pages
ISBN-10: 0679874720
ISBN-13: 978-0679874720
책 크기: 26.5cm x 21.5cm



[ 영문 서평 ]

Book Description
As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation--and even of running away to freedom. Then she overhears two slaves talking about the Underground Railroad. In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land--a freedom quilt--that no master will ever suspect.


From Publishers Weekly
A courageous slave girl plays an unusual part in the Underground Railroad; in a starred review, PW said, "This first-rate book is a triumph of the heart."


From School Library Journal
Clara, a young slave, works as a seamstress and dreams of freedom. Overhearing drovers talk of escaping North enables her to make a patchwork map of the area. When she escapes, she leaves the quilt behind to guide others. Based on a true event, this is a well-written picture book. Ransome's oil paintings, however, are perhaps too smooth and rich for the story they tell. The world depicted is too bright, open, and clean. For example, in the first scene Clara has been put to work in the cotton fields. Supposedly too frail to last long at such work, she is pictured as a slim, serious, yet sturdy girl. The bright yellow sky and the charming smile of the boy with her belie the realities of the back-breaking work. In another scene, young Jack, who has been brought back the day before from running away, looks solemn, but not distressed, and is wearing what appears to be a freshly ironed white shirt. Again, the image distances viewers from the realities of the situation. Clara's escape to Canada, too, is marvelously easy, although she does say, "But not all are as lucky as we were, and most never can come." It is not easy to present the horrors of slavery to young children; thus, even though Ransome's illustrations, and to some extent the text, err on the side of caution, this is an inspiring story worth inclusion in most collections.


Kirkus Reviews
When Sweet Clara, not yet 12, is taken from her mother and sent from North Farm to Home Plantation as a field hand, she's put in the care of ``Aunt Rachel,'' not ``my for-real blood aunt, but she did her best.'' Fearing for Clara's health, Rachel teaches her to sew and is lucky enough to get her a place in the Big House, where Clara listens, learns, and saves scraps that she eventually pieces into a map-quilt showing the way to the Ohio and freedom. The troubles Clara escapes are so muted here that her accomplishment seems almost too easy; in a straightforward narrative flavored with dialect, she mentions that recaptured slaves might be beaten and describes her grief at leaving her mother, but Ransome's moving depiction of the hug when the two are reunited on the way north is a more poignant clue to the pain of their separation. What's emphasized are Clara's resolve and creativity and the accomplishment of winning her freedom; in the same vein, Ransome depicts the characters as sturdy, purposeful, and mutually supportive and sets them in colorful landscapes eloquently proclaiming the earth's beauty. A well-told, handsomely illustrated story that effectively dramatizes young Clara's perseverance and courage.