It is 1852 in Alexandria, Virginia. An orphaned slave, twelve-year-old Eliza has only the quilt her mother left her and the memory of the stories she told. Stories become Eliza's lifeline to freedom after she takes to the night upon learning she will soon be traded. "Go East. Your back to the set of the sun until you come to the safe house where the candlelight lights the window." With the words of Old Joe, the farmhand, in her ears, Eliza travels by night and sleeps by day, keeping her diary along the way.

Thoroughly researched by award-winning author Jerdine Nolin, Eliza's Freedom Road brings to life a historical period of pain and triumph. Vivid details and the emotional nature of Eliza's journal make her journey along the Underground Railroad powerful, accessible, and poignant.

 

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published 2011 by Simon & Schuster .

JERDINE NOLEN is the author of many beloved picture books, including Plantzilla and Raising Dragons , which won the Christopher Award and was a Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children. She lives in Maryland. KADIR NELSON has illustrated many popular books for children, including Just the Two of Us by Will Smith and Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. He lives in California. Patricia Hruby Powell's previous book, Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker , won a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction, a Coretta Scott King Honor, and five starred reviews. She lives in Illinois. Shadra Strickland is an illustrator whose work has won an Ezra Jack Keats Award, a Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and an NAACP Image Award. She lives in Maryland.