Illustrated by Sean QuallsRating: Additional
Houghton Mifflin, 2008, $16.00
ISBN: 978-0618737390
Age/Grade Level: 9-12
Age/Grade Level: 9-12
Phillis's tale of slave girl (named after the ship that brought her from Africa) turned educated poet is a fascination.This book chronicles her "test:" having to prove before the important men of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that she is indeed the author of the poetry she dreams of publishing. While I am delighted to have "witnessed" her slavery to success story in a picture book form, the ending did not fully satisfy me. The entire book builds up to the moment where she gets in front of this room full of judges, only to end there. While there is an afterward which states that the events in that room were never fully known, if Clinton could make up what Phillis was feeling leading up to this meeting, surely she could also have authored an educated guess about the main event itself.
Reviewer: Monica Barrette, Orange Public Library
