So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom by Gary D. Schmidt (review)

Born to slaves in New York state, Isabella Baumfree was separated from her mother and sold to a series of owners, the last of whom promised her freedom a year before the state would emancipate all slaves. When he reneged on his promise, she fled with one of her children and, with the aid of white anti-slavery neighbors, was purchased out of slavery and went on to sue for the return of her son, Peter. Her own freedom was never enough, though; renaming herself Sojourner Truth, she traveled ceaselessly, bringing a religiously driven message of anti-slavery, civil rights, and women's suffrage. Schmidt's fluid prose is nicely suited to reading aloud to primary-grade audiences, but Minter's arresting artwork extends the age range with symbol-rich framed insets that introduce each "chapter" of Truth's life and with the rock-solid and shadowy figures that move boldly in the foreground and stealthily through the background of many compositions. A trio of appended notes enrich the picture-book experience: a biographical note adds details of Truth's family life; a bibliographical essay comments on credibility and bias of commonly consulted sources; and an artist's note offers insight into Minter's approach to the text. Even picture-book collections in which Truth is well represented will surely make space for this engrossing work. EB