4 BOOKS CELEBRATE THE BLACK AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993                   TAG: 9304040266
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Reviewed by LENI ASHMORE SORENSEN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
4 BOOKS CELEBRATE THE BLACK AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
MANY THOUSANDS GONE: AFRICAN AMERICANS FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM. By Virginia Hamilton. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. Knopf. $16.
SWEET CLARA AND THE FREEDOM QUILT. By Deborah Hopkinson. Paintings by James Ransome. Knopf. $15.00.
AUNT HARRIET'S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN THE SKY. By Faith Ringgold. Crown. $15.
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING. By James Weldon Johnson. Illustrations by Elizabeth Catlett. Walker. $14.95.
These four books are among the wonderful and growing array of stories for children about the black American experience. The combination of text and delightful illustration is guaranteed to capture the imagination of the very young and hopefully to inspire older children to draw and write on their own.
In Virginia Hamilton's "Many Thousands Gone," Leo and Diane Dillon continue to create eloquent and beautiful drawings of black men, women and children. The cover - like that of an earlier work, "The People Could Fly" - is worthy of being framed, so real and moving are the images.
Hamilton has written a collection of biographies of black Americans that range from the 17th century runaway Somersett to the Gabriel Prosser rebellion in Richmond in 1800 to the slave Henry Brown who had himself shipped north to freedom in a box! The real life Eliza who inspired the character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is described, as is the lesser known Jenny Slew who, in 1770, took the cause of her right to freedom to the Massachusetts Superior Court and won.
There is an excellent bibliography and index, making this a book of value not only to the parent reading to the young child but to the elementary age student.
In "Sweet Clara," the heroine is taken from her mother and sent to work at the Home Plantation at the age of 11. Cared for and protected by her not "for-real blood aunt," Rachel, Clara is taught to sew as a way to escape the brutality of the cotton fields. Out of this craft comes her inspiration to create a map to freedom using scraps of cloth, fine stitchery and a design created out of what she overhears about the way to the North from black drivers, farm workers and runaways who have been caught and returned to the plantation. Her loyalty and perseverance are strong themes in the story.
Over the past decade quilts by black American women have been researched and exhibited in universities and at museums. The quilt as a story telling tradition is well served by the story of "Sweet Clara."
The story of Harriet Tubman is always inspiring, but Faith Ringgold's "Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky," with Cassie's dream-world experience, is particularly engaging. We first met Cassie in Ringgold's "Tar Beach." This time she and her baby brother meet Aunt Harriet in a fanciful re-enactment of the underground route to freedom. While telling her the story of the slaves and their struggle to freedom, Aunt Harriet guides Cassie north through the many ways that blacks were secreted on their way by the Underground Railroad.
There is a brief biography of Harriet Tubman accompanied by a good map of the routes of the Underground Railroad. You will want to share this flight with your children.
As fine as all the preceding books are, I have saved the best for last. In James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the text of the song that thrilled me as a child has been combined with Elizabeth Catlett's powerful images of endurance and strength. Sojourner Truth raises her hand to make a biblical point, Harriet Tubman points toward freedom, an unnamed woman gazes past the barbed wire that separates her from her people and her dreams.
These linocuts created in the 1940s reflect Catlett's lifelong commitment to expressing the world of her people. The book also contains Elizabeth Catlett's original captions to the art and the complete musical score with lyrics for the piano.
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" belongs on the coffee table, the piano, the school library book list and a child's bedside bookshelf.

Leni Ashmore Sorensen is a graduate of the Mary Baldwin College Adult Degree program.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB