All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson (review)

On a Texas plantation, dawn comes to a girl and the rest of the enslaved workers as usual, and “nobody knew … that soon it would all be different.” Later that day, however, the word comes about the Union general’s proclamation enforcing the emancipation of the slaves, and the news transforms the girl’s existence. People cheer, and whisper, and pray, and they “told stories as free people/on/into/the night”; the girl goes to bed knowing that the next dawn brings a time “that will be for all of us,/all different now.” Although the end matter is plenty informative, the main text isn’t so much about relaying facts as it is about depicting the emotion of a life-transforming, generations-transforming, epoch-transforming moment; Johnson’s quiet ragged-right prose has a credible breathlessness as it conveys the mixture of stunned amazement and sheer joy. Lewis’ limpid watercolors are lowkey, his usual chiaroscuro effectively illuminating the diurnal progress of the text as well as the emotional shades of the story; the blinding bleached tones of the cotton field under the Texas sun contrast with the sweet blue night of jubilation. This is an emotive and effective way to take emancipation from a historic date to the experience of people whose lives changed, and it’ll open kids’ eyes to the impact of the transition. Moving notes from Johnson and from Lewis (who talks about his use of models and his artistic choices as well as his personal relationship with the story), a timeline, an explanation of Juneteenth, a glossary, and a list of online sources are appended.