Home Is with Our Family

Gr 5—8—Thirteen-year-old Maria and her family live in New York City in 1855. They are free "colored" people and own their home, but they have been notified that their neighborhood will be demolished for the future Central Park. The residents are furious that the city is taking their land and not paying them what they believe it is worth. A new girl in school, Anna, who is about Maria's age, is uneducated and reticent about her past. Maria discovers that although Anna's parents are free, Anna is considered a runaway and lives in fear of being captured by slave hunters. Maria is so impressed when she hears Sojourner Truth speak that she and her friends attempt to raise enough money to buy Anna's freedom. The story gets bogged down in too much description of Maria and her family's daily life, and the landowners' fight against the city is not fully developed. Only in the last few chapters when the girls flee a slave hunter and Anna and her family are hidden is there any excitement. The writing is merely a dull recitation of events, not the eloquent, flowing prose her fans have previously enjoyed. The story may find some interest in the New York area, or with the Hansen's die-hard fans.—Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC