Freedom Train (review)
2008; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2008.0196
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Caribbean history, culture, and politics
ResumoReviewed by: Seventeen Karen Coats Nilsson, Per Seventeen; tr. by Tara Chace. Front Street, 2007263p ISBN 978-1-932425-89-5$17.95 R Gr. 9-12 Twelve-year-old Clyde is mostly proud of having an older brother who is a decorated Marine serving as a guard aboard the Freedom Train, the locomotive that's traveling the country in 1947 bringing historical documents and artifacts to excited throngs, but he's a little grumpy, too, since all anyone can talk about is how wonderful his brother is, while he spends most of his time in trouble. Plus he's being bullied by Phillip Granger and he can't really fight back, since Phillip's father is a boss at the cotton mill where his mother works. When Phillip jumps him on the way home from school and knocks him unconscious with a plank to the head, help comes from the shadows as a black boy named William pelts Phillip with stones from his slingshot and then takes Clyde home to his father, a doctor, who fixes him up. Clyde tells no one about his encounter with the black family, but he has his chance to repay the favor when the Columbians, a group similar to the Klan, attempt to run the doctor and his family out of town. While Coleman captures the voice of a Southern, working-class white boy of the '40s, the narrative is ungainly in its purposiveness, and it debases to outright sermonizing as Clyde overcomes his problem with stuttering and speaking in public just in time to recite the Freedom Pledge, supposedly because he has finally understood what it really means. When Clyde declares that the resultant courage he finds to openly befriend William is a better Christmas present than the American Flyer train set that he had his heart set on, the sap all but clogs the works. However, if subtlety isn't a necessary virtue in historical fiction for this age group, Coleman's blend of trains, fights, frogs, and male honor will appeal to burgeoning young patriots. An historical note on the Freedom Train, including some pictures and a website where the songs referenced can be heard, is included. Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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