In the fall of 1896 elderly Susannah McKnight coaxes her granddaughter Mary to travel with her to Canada to visit someone Mary regards as an ``old slave woman.'' Mary's vision of Bethlehem Reid is shattered, however, when she hears an amazing story of undying friendship and courage. As young girls Susannah and Bethlehem helped each other escape to the North: for Bethlehem, freedom; for Susannah, a return to the home she loved. Rich and emotionally resonant, this compelling, true story is told in compassionate, lush language; delighting not only in its poetic imagery and uncompromising clarity of expression but in the suspense and adventure of the girls' flight to personal liberty. Bethlehem and Susannah's friendship, born of circumstance and necessity, is never sentimentalized but remains fierce and heartbreaking to the last. This powerful, moving and thought-provoking narrative is sure to stay with readers long after it is finished. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)

Gr 5-8-- The title comes from a spiritual used as a signal to slaves that the time had come for them to make a run for freedom. Susannah, 13, thinks about such matters in the abstract until the year her parents die and she is taken to Virginia to live with her uncle's family. She believes that slavery is wrong, and matters are made worse when she is given a slave, Bethlehem. Susannah befriends her, teaches her to read, and then asks her help getting back to Vermont. While the story line is occasionally unrealistic--the girls have much too easy a time running north, for example--its strength lies in its unstinting examination of emotions. Bethlehem deals with her hatred of slavery, her resentment of the white girl, and her need to go on to Canada rather than to stay with Susannah, now a friend. Susannah must come to terms with her feelings about the black race. And her granddaughter, to whom the story is told, finds her own eyes opened and her prejudices exposed. Characterization of the main heroines is sound, although the secondary players never come to life. Despite the facile surface, the issues explored in this book run deep. When read with William Katz's Breaking the Chains (Atheneum, 1990), this will go a long way toward explicating the damage done by slavery. --Ann Welton, Thomas Academy, Kent, WA

A powerful yet subtle portrait of life in the U.S. before the Civil War, this story examines what slavery meant to people on two of the three sides. Told in both the past and present, it is a story of innocence, loneliness, and friendship, as Suzanna befriends Bethlehem, a slave in her uncle's home in Virginia. Unaware of the risks and dangers involved, Suzanna teaches Bethlehem to read, then takes her along when she runs away, heading home to Vermont and freedom. The two girls tell their story together, in alternating chapters; their several escapes, problems, and growing friendship reveal understanding, and remorse. The narration, performed by Christina Moore, Barbara Caruso, and Lynne Thigpen, is perfectly matched to the text--we hear both characters age along with the story itself. All three narrators expertly portray the characters’ range of emotions, creating a sense of the various times and places they lived in and examining the choices they made along their journey. W.L.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine