Underground to Canada

Exposing young readers to the abhorrent practice of slavery without overly upsetting them is a difficult challenge that author Barbara Smucker handles with considerable skill. Her moving and dramatic account of Julilly's flight to freedom honestly depicts the horrors of slavery while wisely avoiding its most gruesome aspects. And when Mammy Sally tells her daughter that while ""none of us is slaves,"" ""the white people in St. Catharines don't want us in their schools,"" Smucker is also acknowledging that life for ex-slaves in Canada wasn't easy. First published in 1977, Underground to Canada has become a classic, a first-rate historical novel that deftly portrays a young girl's personal quest for freedom and dignity against the broader struggle between good and evil. --Martha Johnson