Look to the Hills : the Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not. ( )

Part of the Dear America series, Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl (New York Colony, 1763) is written at a child's level, but full of the scholarship that author Patricia C. McKissack brings to her work. This story follows Lozette (Zettie), born on a slave ship as her mother dies, to a brief stay at a convent, then being sold as a companion to a young girl in France, where she lives on friendly terms with her mistress, Marie-Louise Boyer (Ree). Ree's oldest brother joins the military and is presumed dead in America, which news precipitates her father's death. Her next brother then squanders the family fortunes and sells everything to stay out of debtor's prison. Ree escapes with Zettie to America.

There is a good history and geography lesson here about Cape Breton Island, the great lakes, the New York wilderness, and Indian relations with the different Europeans. A “Historical Notes” section at the end, shows pictures of maps, slave ships, and the real persons depicted in this story.

A sample: That need to be free is a force that draws people to this land. It goes beyond being French, English, Dutch, Spanish, man, woman, rich, poor, slave, or free. I can feel the energy of that yearning all around me in the colonists, the trappers, the soldiers.

Very nicely done. 3.6 stars ( )

Brought up in France as the African slave companion of a nobleman's daughter, 13 year-old Zettie records the events of 1763 when she and her mistress escape to the New World where they are inadvertently drawn into the hostilities fo the ongoing French and Indian war.

Twelve-year-old Lozette Moreau, called Zettie, has lived all her life since she was a baby in the French countryside as the companion to Marie-Louise Boyer, called Ree, daughter of a wealthy nobleman. Although she is still considered a slave, as Ree's companion she is treated well, able to read and write, and to speak French, Spanish, and English. But when Ree's father dies and her brother Pierre inherits everything, he loses the family fortune with his bad decisions. Now he is going to sell Zettie, and force Ree into marriage to a man she despises. Then Ree learns that her other brother Jacques, presumed dead in the war with the English, may be alive, and living with Indians in the Colonies. Ree and Zettie escape to Spain and then travel across the ocean to the New World, where they end up living at Fort Niagara. In her diary, Lozette describes their journey, their experiences at Fort Niagara at the end of the French and Indian War, and her own longing to be considered free.

I highly recommend this new book to all readers who love the Dear America series. I especially love Colonial American settings and I liked reading a different type of slavery story. Zettie was well treated but still longed to be a free person. It's a very unique book sure to be enjoyed by historical fiction fans. ( )

This book offers a different perspective on slavery- it compares slavery in America to that in France. Though slavery in France is less cruel, the main character, Lozette, makes it clear that being free is important, regardless of the conditions. I found the story interesting and the character relateable. ( )