The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Nelson, Marilyn

The Freedom Business

72 pp. | Boyds/Wordsong | October, 2008 | Trade ISBN 978-1-932425-57-4 $18.95

(2) YA Illustrated by Deborah Dancy. Nelson partners the 1798 autobiography of ex-slave Venture Smith (reproduced on the book's left-hand pages) with twenty-five free- and formal-verse poems inspired by particular moments from his life. The poems bring expanding emotionalism to Smith's dignified, stolid, factual account. Dancy's subtly tinted paintings are suggestive and atmospheric rather than literal, and the whole has an understated power.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008