Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary

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Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary

by Jerdine Nolen, Jerdine Nolen, Shadra Strickland (Goodreads Author) (Illustrations)

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 84 ratings · 24 reviews

It is 1852 in Alexandria, Virginia. Elizas mother has been sent away and it is Abbey, the cook, who looks after Eliza, when Eliza isnt taking care of the Mistress. Eliza has the quilt her mother left her and the memory of the stories she told to keep her close. When her Mistresss health begins to fail and Eliza overhears the Master talk of Eliza being traded, Eliza takes t...more

Hardcover, 160 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

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Aug 17, 2012 Lori Redman rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-eyed-susans, elementary, historical-fiction

Eliza is a 12 year old slave girl on a tobacco plantation in Virginia in 1854. Her mother has been sold away, and her master, Sir, is a cruel man. Inspired by the story "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that she reads in the newspaper, she decides to run away with the aid of Harriet Tubman.

.... Really? Sigh. This book seems historically inaccurate, or at the very least, implausible. The author cited a bunch of references at the end of the book- but it just seemed over the top to me. Call me old fashioned but...more

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Mar 06, 2012 IndyPL Kids Book Blog rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Eliza is a slave on a tobacco plantation in Alexandria, Virginia in the 1850s. Eliza is unusual because she has been taught to read and write. Eliza keeps a diary of her life on the plantation and she is a good storyteller.

Eliza tells about how it felt when her mother was sold away. She tells about how scared she is when she hears Sir’s boots walking toward her. Her words make her experiences feel real while you reading her diary. I felt scared when Eliza felt scared. Just thinking about the sou...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ncbla

Covering a year and a half in the life of young Eliza who is a slave on a Virginia tobacco farm, this diary takes readers on her treacherous journey once she escapes and heads north. Eliza is a storyteller, and she keeps up her spirits and those of the companions on part of her journey by sharing stories passed down to her by her mother who had been sold from the plantation earlier. The weaving in of these stories and Eliza's own ruminations before and while escaping are engaging. I liked how sh...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Margo Tanenbaum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: slavery, historical-fiction, underground-railroad

In her first novel for middle grade readers, author Jerdine Nolen presents a fictional diary of a 12-year old slave in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1854, as she escapes to freedom in Canada through the help of the Underground Railroad. Much like Scholastic's Dear America series, the story is told in diary entries that take place over the course of a year.

Eliza is not an ordinary slave; at a time when it was against the law for slaves to learn to read and write, she was taught by her mistress to do...more In her first novel for middle grade readers, author Jerdine Nolen presents a fictional diary of a 12-year old slave in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1854, as she escapes to freedom in Canada through the help of the Underground Railroad. Much like Scholastic's Dear America series, the story is told in diary entries that take place over the course of a year.

Eliza is not an ordinary slave; at a time when it was against the law for slaves to learn to read and write, she was taught by her mistress to do so. But it is not her mistress but fellow house slave Abbey who gives Eliza the unused diary Mistress had thrown away, along with two lead pencils. But she knows she must write in it in secret, far from the eyes of Sir, the plantation's cruel owner. Eliza's mother has been sold away, leaving her with only her memories and a beloved story quilt to remember her by. This quilt has twelve panels, each symbolizing a different story her mother loved to tell, including two blank squares, for Eliza to quilt her own stories on. Eliza's own narrative is peppered with her mother's stories, some of which have African roots, others coming from the Bible.

Because she reads the newspaper to her nearly-blind Mistress, Eliza is more aware than most slaves of the unrest in the country over slavery, and learns through the paper about the underground railroad. She wonders what that could be. "Do they mean departure by an underground railroad train? Is there a way they escaped on a train that runs under the ground? I want to know how to find that train station. I want to know how to get three tickets: one for Abbey, one for Mama, one for me."

When Eliza is sent with her mistress to "Mary's Land," she meets Harriet Tubman, who one of the other slaves tells Eliza is the Moses of their people, coming back to show others the way to freedom. Be ready in the spring, they tell her, when Miss Harriet will be back. But when she finds out Sir is coming to take them back home, she knows she can't delay any longer; she must go north to freedom.

The diary chronicles Eliza's journey on the Underground Railroad, and how she used markers and the North Star to find her way from safe house to safe house. Although the happy ending that awaits Eliza in Canada seems a bit forced, the book is likely to be popular with young readers looking for historical titles. There is plenty of suspense as Eliza makes her way north, and the author does an excellent job capturing Eliza's voice and her everyday life as a slave before she runs away.

An author's note explains that the book started as a collection of her favorite stories and folktales, and she was subsequently inspired to add the voice of young Eliza, the storyteller. She also mentions Canterbury Tales as a source of inspiration as well.

The book includes a bibliography of related books and websites.
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Apr 11, 2013 Miss Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grades-4-6-historical-fiction, historical-fiction-over-100-pgs

gr 4-7 139pgs

1854 Virginia. 12 year old Eliza has always worked as a slave alongside and her mother (before she was sold) in the kitchen. When Eliza travels with her mistress to Maryland, she takes along the special storytelling quilt (all that she has left of her mother) and her journal (which she can write in since her mistress taught her to read and write) with her. When her mistress' illness worsens, Eliza realizes she must escape. Without her mistress' protection, the master is sure to sell...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Name me all the films you can that involve slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Okay then, I'll make it easy on you. Name me a single film, just one, that involves slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Crazy, isn't it? Here we have what must be one of the most heroic and harrowing real life escape stories in the history of our country, and Hollywood can't be bothered to put a single such tale to celluloid. Now in the world of children's literature, The Underground Railro...more Name me all the films you can that involve slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Okay then, I'll make it easy on you. Name me a single film, just one, that involves slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Crazy, isn't it? Here we have what must be one of the most heroic and harrowing real life escape stories in the history of our country, and Hollywood can't be bothered to put a single such tale to celluloid. Now in the world of children's literature, The Underground Railroad is a common topic to write on. Books about it abound, though interestingly enough there isn't a single Underground Railroad novel that eclipses all the others. Maybe that's why folks keep writing them. The latest I've seen recently is Eliza's Freedom Road. It's penned by the former picture book author Jerdine Nolen and features a very basic, very straightforward story of one girl escaping to freedom in Canada with some help. If you are looking for a good introductory novel that introduces not just the concept of slavery but also the definition of what The Underground Railroad even was, this slim little book may prove your best chance to do so. It covers familiar ground but reaches a slightly younger audience.

Twelve-year-old Eliza is on her own. No mother. No father. Her mother, you see, was recently sold away to another state, so Eliza spends her days with Abby the cook. She has her mother's stories, sewn into patches on a special quilt, and that comforts her but it's not enough. Eliza's greatest fear is that she might get sent away too, a fear that is more than justified due to the nasty looks she gets from her master. Years ago her mistress taught Eliza to read and write and now relies on the girl to read to her from the newspaper and books. When the chance to accompany her mistress to Maryland comes up, Eliza leaps at the chance. Once there, she finds that there come opportunities in a person's life to escape into the unknown. Eliza is ready to take that chance, and she has a woman by the name of Harriet Tubman to help her out. Backmatter includes an Author's Note, Notes on the Stories, a Bibliography, and a long and detailed list of useful websites.

A couple months ago I was working in my children's room when I got a request to host a small group of Boy Scouts on one of our late nights. The boys were learning about tall tales so I was asked to read some aloud to them. I selected a variety of tall tale picture books, amongst them Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen. When I gave a quickie synopsis of the books I'd chosen and asked the boys which one I should read, they unanimously requested Nolen's book. And read it to them I did, though the book turned out to be surprisingly long. The author had packed in a lot of text and a lot of descriptions. Halfway through I couldn't help but think that clearly her heart was on writing something longer, like a novel. So I wasn't surprised to see Eliza's Freedom Road come out with the selfsame author's name on the cover not long after. What did surprise me was that she had decided to go with a diary format. This seemed like a bizarre choice. After all, this was an author who in the aforementioned Thunder Rose could whip out sentences like, "It's giving me a fortunate feeling rumbling deep in the pit of me. I'll register it here at the bull's-eye set in the center of my heart, and see what I can do with it one day!" I thought that with a novel she'd be able to put this descriptive habit to its proper full-length use. Instead, she feels almost hampered by the diary format. Her prose comes out in starts and stops. They're lovely starts and stops, don't get me wrong, but I have a feeling that when Ms. Nolen is good and ready she could deliver a full chapter of third person descriptions to make your head turn and spin. Journal entries aren't quite up to that kind of writing.

Though written to look like a diary of the time, Nolen's book contains a lot of little changes that make it appropriate reading for kids who are just getting into chapter books that don't have pictures. In spite of its historical conceit, the book doesn't seek to replicate the look and spellings of the 1850s, for which I was grateful. There were other aspects to it that make me think that this would make an ideal introductory title for kids just getting into historical fiction. For one thing, it offers a straightforward explanation of what The Underground Railroad actually was. When I was a kid, I remember being incredibly confused by this term. My teachers didn't really clarify, and I feel as if I spent most of third grade assuming, just as Eliza does at first in this story, that it involved a subterranean train of some sort. A book like this one would have been a godsend.

Of course the characters felt real. Eliza herself manages to sound cute in her youth without sounding precious. A line like "Why am I all the time so full up with thoughts and words in my head?" could easily be rendered intolerable if the author pushed their luck. Nolen doesn't. I watched with some interest the interactions between Eliza and her mistress, because it was here that Nolen had to walk the finest line of all. On the one hand, Eliza should not be emotionally attached to someone who holds her in bondage. By the same token, this is a woman who has taught her to read, and to not have any human feelings towards her might, to the kids reading anyway, strike them as heartless. That said, I realized partway through the novel that part of the lure of escaped slave tale for children is that the books not only should be but HAVE to be about the self. Children are very interested in their own selves, and Eliza's Freedom Road speaks to that part of them that looks out for number one. That said, you have to also show your character caring and helping other people or else you might end up with an Ayn Rand novel by mistake.

There's not a lot of conflict that falls in the path of Eliza and what she wants, so her escape is without much in the way of close calls. I assume that this was done so that the book could cover a lot of ground and tell a lot of stories without losing the younger readers. An Underground Railroad book for smaller children is a tricky choice, and it's interesting that Ms. Nolen chose to go this route with her first novel. Even here, though, you see her love of storytelling shine through whenever Eliza tells a tale. This is a fine and interesting debut that serves a distinct purpose in any library's collection. That said, I do hope we'll see more of Ms. Nolen's work in the future, and that she won't confine herself to journal entries and diary dabbles. The story will out.

For ages 8-11. (less)

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Jul 10, 2012 Sabrina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-eyed-susan-2012-nominees

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 23, 2011 Reader rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-january-2011

A kind of Intro to the Underground Railroad for kids who may not have known about it before. Eliza lives on a plantation without her mother, spending much of her days reading to her dying mistress. When a doctor recommends that her mistress see her sister in Maryland, Eliza is taken along. Suddenly freedom seems that much closer, and with the introduction of Harriet Tubman she at long last has a chance to fulfill her dreams and the dreams of her mother as well. The story is dotted with the stori...more

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Jul 24, 2011 poppy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, character-adoration, us-history, childrens, young-adult, slavery

I would give this 4.5 stars if it was a choice. It wasn't a life-changing amazing, but I really loved it. I think it's a very accessible (to young readers) story about one slave's journey along the Underground Railroad to freedom. Eliza's story is told through journal entries, and the fictional account is set accurately in historical context without being too horrific. Her tale is sweetly woven in with folk tales from her mother. I would recommend this book to 4th and 5th grade teachers for clas...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Madigan McGillicuddy rated it 4 of 5 stars

12 year-old Eliza lives as a slave in the 1850's in Alexandria, Virginia. Her life is not horrific, but readers will see right away a few of the injustices she is forced to endure. She is friends with the house cook, and therefore eats well. Her half-blind mistress has taught her how to read (an unusual advantage for a slave) so that Eliza can read her letters and newspapers. Eliza even has a small diary that she is able to keep. Her mother has sewn her a beautiful quilt, with each quilt square...more 12 year-old Eliza lives as a slave in the 1850's in Alexandria, Virginia. Her life is not horrific, but readers will see right away a few of the injustices she is forced to endure. She is friends with the house cook, and therefore eats well. Her half-blind mistress has taught her how to read (an unusual advantage for a slave) so that Eliza can read her letters and newspapers. Eliza even has a small diary that she is able to keep. Her mother has sewn her a beautiful quilt, with each quilt square representing a traditional folktale. But Eliza's mother has recently been sent away, and there is talk that Eliza may be sold next. She decides to make a break for it, and the bulk of the story is about her year-long journey northward to Canada by night. Alternating between stories of Eliza's escape and traditionally-inspired folktales, this book reminded me just a little bit of The Wanderer by Sharon Creech.

Eliza is an oddly formal little girl - her tone is a bit stilted, and she never uses contractions, but that may be a reflection of the proper speech of the 1850's. As a "house slave" with a bit of education, she doesn't employ colloquial slave speech. The book culminates in a meeting with the legendary leader of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman. True to history, Tubman is a gruff, no-nonsense figure.

An impressive amount of backmatter helps young readers put everything in perspective. There is an author's note, as well as some information about the background of the folktales within the tale. There's also a bibliography of other resources and a list of websites, which I always think will date a book quickly, but certainly have plenty of use at the moment.

The book wraps up very quickly, with a few amazing coincidences that leave our heroine safely reunited with her mother, who has also escaped by the story's end. I'll recommend this to anyone who has exhausted the Dear America series or for those readers who might appreciate the formal prose that takes you to another century.(less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Mandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens

I thought this was a great book to introduce the Underground Railroad to a younger audience. I can see this being read aloud to a fourth or fifth grade class as they study this period in history. Some reviewers have noted that there were few problems on such a treacherous journey. I appreciated this in regards to the intended audience-- it is enough for the main character to have the fear of being sold or beaten without having to experience it firsthand.

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Jul 08, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-a-day-2011, children-s-books

Eliza, an eleven year old slave, details her road to freedom in her 1854 diary. The traditional folktales that Eliza and her mother retold added depth to the novel. (for example David and Goliath, Anansi ) The ways of the underground railroad are revealed complete with Harriet Tubman's heroic role. Well researched historical fiction with lots of curriculum potential.

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Jul 13, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting stories told by the main character, who is very likeable. Realistic situations in Virgina, Maryland, and on the road, but a totally unrealistic ending. Many stories are not wrapped up, which I actually understand and applaud this choice by the author. Kind of ruins the integrity of the book with the too neat ending, though.

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Feb 11, 2011 The Library Lady rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-fiction

I love Jerdine Nolen's picture books, but this novel didn't do it for me.

The prose is awkward, especially the dialog. The plot is full of convenient pieces of luck, less than believable characters and an ending that strains belief. And does EVERY novel involving a runaway slave have to include Harriet Tubman?

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Sep 24, 2012 Dolores rated it 3 of 5 stars

Written diary-style, this is a quick read. Eliza is likable, and the reader will be pulling for her. A teacher I know who works with younger kids felt this was just too dumbed down. I guess I can see what she's saying. I understand that this is aimed at younger kids, but it does feel a bit too neat and easy.

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Apr 28, 2011 Ollie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: 9 & up

Recommended to Ollie by: my mom

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 29, 2011 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-2011-challenge

This was a great short hist. fict. account of a runaway slave with a story twist to it. Great for 4th and 5th grade or a read a loud.

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Apr 12, 2011 Sarah Abercrombie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to love this - for our civil war unit. But in the end, I found it too bland and forgettable.

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Apr 09, 2013 Emily Wallace rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nice intro to the underground railroad for upper elementary aged students.

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Aug 13, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: j-fiction

Eliza, a slave girl, escapes to freedom on the underground railroad.

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Feb 01, 2011 Sam Bloom marked it as to-read

Shelves: did-not-finish

Quit this one to focus on YA stuff for Teen Reading Challenge.

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May 08, 2011 Dawn Little rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade, historical-fiction, content-connections, writers-workshop-mentor-texts

This would be a great book to use as a mentor text for diaries in writers workshop, but it would also be a great book to make connections with in a unit of study about the Underground Railroad or slavery. I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read and the author provides notes to explain certain African-American folklore as well as a lengthy bibliography.

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Nov 19, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

I like the idea of this book but it felt like a story I'd read before (as in, a young girl on the Underground railroad, telling stories). I do like that this author is from Ellicott City (i.e. not far from Baltimore).

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Jul 26, 2011 K rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-books

Authentic and well-researched. Message about the power of stories to maintain courage, store memories, gather strength, and gain perspective.

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Jun 12, 2013 Kelli Coates added it

Jun 07, 2013 Breana added it

Shelves: j-fiction

Jun 04, 2013 Elizabeth Bearden marked it as to-read

Shelves: vsb-13-14

Jun 04, 2013 Meredith Wurm marked it as to-read

May 27, 2013 Sage is currently reading it

Shelves: children-s-historical, children-s-juvenile-novels, children-s, dear-america

Jun 02, 2013 Tan Hui Lynn rated it 3 of 5 stars

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