Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome (review)

Cline-Ransome presents a deft and moving tribute to Harriet Tubman, a figure so well represented in youth literature and school curricula as to be in danger of reduction from woman to icon. Spare, fluid free-verse text works its way backward through Tubman's life, from "before wrinkles formed/ and her eyes failed" to when she was a suffragist: "before her voice became/ soft and raspy/ it was loud/ and angry/ rising above injustice." Before that, during the Civil War, she was "General Tubman" and a Union spy and nurse, "caring for those hit/ with bullets/ and hatred/ and fear." "Aunt Harriet" is probably best known for bringing many of the enslaved safely north, but before her role as "Moses," she was Minty the slave, and Araminta, her father's strong daughter "who dreamed/ of living long enough/ to one day/ be old/ stiff and achy/ tired and worn and wrinkled/ and free." James Ransome's watercolors lend literal interpretations to the narration, and the picture book trim facilitates group viewing of the illustrations. An affecting paean to Tubman, this title may also encourage readers to view their own elders with fresh eyes, looking past age for a "wisp of a woman/ with the courage/ of a lion." EB