Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes (review)

It's 1870, and although many of Mr. Wills' slaves left his River Road plantation in Louisiana five years ago, ten-year-old Sugar is stuck working the sugar cane. Parentless, Sugar is semi-independent in her own shack but still under the watchful eyes of the aging former slaves Mr. and Mrs. Beals, who try to keep her under some kind of control. It isn't easy, since Sugar and young Billy Wills take off on rafting adventures whenever they can slip from the elders' gaze, and Sugar is determined to make the acquaintance of the crew of Chinese workers Mr. Wills has recruited to replace his aging workforce. Mr. Wills falls out with his long-time overseer on the issue of abusing the new field hands, and the overseer, in turn, regards Wills' change of heart as a sign of weakness and deterioration of the social order, ultimately venting his rage in a fiery act of revenge. Loss of their livelihood may prove to be a blessing, though, as Sugar finally convinces the Bealses to head north with her in search of their missing children and a possible better life. While the tale of Sugar's unlikely friendships seem a little too neatly orchestrated, the view of a plantation in the throes of Reconstruction era reorganization is thought provoking. Middle-graders who follow the adventures of American Girls ex-slave Addy Walker will be particularly interested in this tale of a child for whom the promise of freedom takes its own sweet time.