2007 Coretta Scott King Award Winner
2015 Edwards Award Winner
Amari's life is changed irrevocably when pale-faced men attack her African village and drag her off to be sold into slavery. Between witnessing the murder of all her family, the indignity of being owned and used by someone else, and being forced to assimilate to a new culture, Amari doesn't have a lot to be hopeful for. But everyone around her reminds her that hope is all any of them have left, and it's better to hope than to give up. Polly, an orphan, is stuck serving out her parents' indentures for the next fourteen years. When her indenture is bought by Mr. Darby, a rice plantation owner, she feels like she will at least be able to put the skills her parents taught her to use and work in the big house. Much to her chagrin, she finds herself stuck with Amari, doing the types of jobs that slaves do. What begins as a begrudging acceptance manages to bloom into a friendship as the two girls survive life on the Darby plantation. But when they find themselves in the middle of a terrible situation, the girls must find the courage to survive.
I liked this one more than some of her other books I've read. Sharon doesn't shy away from the realities of being a woman and a slave during those times. Amari was purchased as a present for Mr. Darby's teenaged son, and it doesn't take much to figure out what a teenaged boy would want with a female slave. There are some moments that seem a little too coincidental, like when Amari crosses paths again with Besa, the man she was betrothed to back in Africa, or when (spoiler alert) Clay manages to find the girls, even though they had been traveling for a week by that point (admittedly, by foot, so maybe my perception of time is wrong). Despite that, it's a really good book that further drives home the realities of slavery and the atrocities slaves faced, and the downright horribleness of that period of American history.
(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Reading Challenge.)
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