A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth

My professor expressed some dislike of Adler’s work, and, after reading this picture book, I can see why. It is visually pleasant enough, but the writing is… bland, to say the least. The narrative structure is jerky, and the language is boring. While the story of Sojourner Truth is, certainly, important and inspiring, Adler’s dull writing manages to sap much of the enjoyment out of the story. I can’t, honestly, see holding the attention of a group of children with this book unless its recitation was accompanied by an interpretive dance. Even then, a few may doze off. It is a tragedy, really, because this book is not really “bad,” but I could not, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone for their classroom.

Sojourner Truth was born during a time of slavery and discrimination. When she was 9, she was taken from her family and sold to another slave owner. Sojourner Truth was sold multiple times before she was encouraged to marry in order to increase the number of slaves. Sojourner Truth became the first women in the U.S. to win a lawsuit against a white man. She later fought against discrimination and believed that whites and blacks should have the same rights. The biography goes through the life of Sojourner Truth as a slave, what she did to get her freedom, and the actions she took to work towards ending discrimination in the U.S. I think the story of Sojourner Truth is very important in history, but the way the story was written didn't show more grab my attention that well. The different things that people had to do to fight against discrimination is very interesting to me. I wish the story would have went into more detail about that. show less

I really liked how the author was able to turn a boring biography into an interesting chronological story. Even though this book explains the life events of Sojourner Truth, the author did it in a way that would attract young readers. He also succeeded at this by including illustrations on every page. I also enjoyed that readers can learn about slavery and the hardships that African-Americans faced during this time from this book. The central message is slavery.

Summary: The author describes the life events of Sojourner Truth. She was born in 1797 in Hurley, New York. She was the daughter of two slaves. She had many brothers and sisters. However, they were sold to slave traders. When she was nine years old, she was taken from her family show more and sold as a slave. Her new slave owner got Sojourner to marry another slave, named Thomas, in order to increase the number of slaves. Together, Sojourner and Thomas had five children. Her new slave owner agreed to free Sojourner in nine years because of a new freedom law that passed. However, when that time finally came, her owner refused to free her. She was furious. She decided that she needed to finish her work and run away. After she ran away to be free, she decided to sue her old slave owners. Sojourner became one of the first African-American women in the United States to win a law suit against a white man. She soon returned to New York to work as a servant. Even though she could not read or write, anti-slavery people helped her survive and communicate. show less

A biography of Sojourner from birth to death. This tells of her life and struggle being traded as a slave and discusses her work as a civil rights activists. I personally liked how this biography tells of the event in her life where she refused to sit in another spot on the streetcar. This reminded of the same situation Rosa Parks, several decades later. This would a for a great lesson on female social justice activist.

This would be a good book for a biography study for younger student, as it is an easy read. However, there is not a bibliography source, but there is an important dates page.

An easy to read picture book on the life of Sojourner Truth, born as Isabella. This book tells about her life as a young child and her life as a slave. She had fought to end slavery and segregation. She had traveled the world preaching to people about God and slavery and segregation. Although she had died before she fulfilled all her dreams, she will always be known for what she had done. This would be good to read about slavery and segregation in a history class.

I would read this book during black history month and also the success of a woman in this time frame. Sojourner raised money for African Americans during the civil war to help feed them and she also helped cared for slaves who moved to the North. I would want my students to learn that they are able to accomplish anything no matter what hurdles stand in the way.

Sojourner Truth, born Isabella, was born to slave parents in Hurley New York, 1797. Most of her older siblings had been sold off, and when her master died, his son took over, and she too was sold. Her new master was cruel and beat her often, Isabella prayed for God to help her. Two years later she was sold again, to Mr. Dumont, and became the pride of his plantation. Isabella was married and has five children as well as a promise of freedom in nine years. However, when the nine years was up, Mr. Dumont refused to free her, so she ran away with her infant daughter. When she was found, a couple helped her by buying her freedom. A year later Isabella found out that her five year old son was sold to an out of state owner, which was against show more the law, she sued him, and won. Isabella struggles to survive in New York so she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and traveled west spreading women’s rights and speaking out against slavery. During the war she supported troops and spoke with Abraham Lincoln. She sued a buggy driver who would not let her sit on the buggy and was promise equal rights for blacks.
I was intrigued by this book. I had no idea there has been such an early attestment to segregation. I think that children would also be interested in this book, I had never heard of the women, as I’m sure they haven’t. However, this woman did as Rosa Parks did on a bus, and more people should be aware to be attributes to black history.
1. Children will choose another player in either black history or women’s history and report it to the class. Posters will be made with pictures of the person or group as well as important facts.
2. Class will discuss the Separate but Equal Act that Sojourner was promised and discusses our ideas of whether separate was equal or not. show less