So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom

by Gary D. Schmidt, Daniel Minter (Illustrator)

Overview

From celebrated author Gary D. Schmidt comes a picture book biography of a giant in the struggle for civil rights, perfectly pitched for readers today.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans. Her story is told with lyricism and pathos by Gary D. Schmidt, one of the most celebrated writers for children in the twenty-first century, and brought to life by award winning and fine artist Daniel Minter. This combination of talent is just right for introducing this legendary figure to a new generation of children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250224927
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	09/25/2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Gary D. Schmidt is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and a Newbery Honor for The Wednesday Wars. He lives with his family on a 150-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, and feeds the wild cats that drop by.

Daniel Minter is a multidisciplinary artist working across different mediums. He is a painter and sculptor who is an illustrator at heart. His work is often symbolic and explores broad concepts that are linked to social justice issues, often while weaving in spiritual themes from the African diaspora. “There are difficult stories to tell that are easy to not talk about. Many involve racism, displacement, and bias historically experienced by most people of African descent,” Minter says. “Artwork can provide a starting point for looking deeper, by first inspiring the emotional response to the aesthetics.” Minter has illustrated many children’s books, including Ellen’s Broom, which won a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor. He’s drawn to children’s books because they allow him to insert something of his own story in the artwork. “It is important that children sometimes see characters that look like them and characters that look different from them in the books they read,” says Minter. He cofounded and created the bas-relief sculptures that mark the Portland Freedom Trail, a self-guided walking tour of notable sites related to the Underground Railroad and abolitionist movement. “The work I do is my way of making sense of the world through the lens of my people,” Minter says. “The work is also a way of engaging the community and giving them a window to understanding who I am enough to see that my work also carries a reflection of them.”

Editorial Reviews

So Tall Within…is a stirring introduction to an extraordinary life…The plain-spoken and eloquent quotations in this book come directly from her 1878 memoir, Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Daniel Minter's paintings, in saturated tones of midnight blues and leaf browns and golds, bring it powerfully to life.

The New York Times Book Review - Julie Just

★ 07/16/2018
Schmidt tells the powerful story of Sojourner Truth (born Isabella), highlighting the context of her courageous actions: “When Isabella was about nine, she was sold for a hundred dollars—along with a flock of sheep.” After a lifetime of slavery, Isabella escaped, yet her five-year-old son was sent to the South, leading her to travel across New York to speak to the Grand Jury. Minter paints luminously, alternating between full-bleed spreads and dreamlike vertical images. At the denouement, Schmidt describes how Isabella took on the name of Sojourner Truth as she embarked on her walking journey to denounce slavery: “In Freedom Time, when Hope kindled a fire in the dark and Happiness winked over the horizon.” A soaring poetic tribute to a human rights champion. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2018 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Informational Books for Young Readers

2019 NCSS and CBC's Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, Kindergarten to Second Grade readers

2019 ALSC's Notable Children's Books for Middle Readers

2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List

"Powerful, moving, necessary." - Kirkus, Starred Review

"A soaring poetic tribute to a human rights champion." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A lyrical and evocative approach to [Sojourner Truth's] story." - School Library Journal

"Schmidt’s fluid prose is nicely suited to reading aloud to primary-grade audiences, but Minter’s arresting artwork extends the age range... Even picture-book collections in which [Sojourner Truth] is well represented will surely make space for this engrossing work." - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A stirring introduction to an extraordinary life - Daniel Minter's paintings, in saturated tones of midnight blues and leaf browns and golds, bring it powerfully to life." - The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

08/01/2018
Gr 1–4—Focusing on the impact of slavery on Sojourner Truth's life and her ongoing fight to end the institution, Schmidt and Minter choose a lyrical and evocative approach to her story. Readers learn about the hardships and cruelty she endured under various masters before her walk to freedom and her legal battle to regain custody of her son. Schmidt incorporates the woman's own words as he recounts her anti-slavery speeches to crowds and her meeting with President Lincoln as she walked thousands of miles to advocate for freedom. Minter's illustrations, arresting at first glance, grow deeper and more compelling with repeated viewing. The vertical panels incorporate images such as ships crossing the ocean and slave collars. Equally striking are recurrent motifs of leaves, roots, and trees in depictions of events from Sojourner's life. Shadowy figures of people from the past, present, and future tie her struggle from the particular to the universal. Because the book omits important events such as her 1851 women's rights speech and minimizes the religious motivation for her activism and preaching, readers should also have access to other introductory biographies such as Andrea Davis Pinkney's Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride, Ann Turner's My Name Is Truth, and Anne Rockwell's Only Passing Through. VERDICT Outstanding illustrations make this a noteworthy addition to most libraries, but collections need to keep other books about Sojourner Truth to present multiple facets of her significant achievements.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

School Library Journal

★ 2018-06-25
The life and work of Sojourner Truth are detailed in this lyrical picture book by Schmidt (Martín de Porres, illustrated by David Diaz, 2012).The book begins "In Slavery Time, when Hope was a seed waiting to be planted." Most of Isabella's brothers and sisters were sold away before she could remember, but her mother told her that the same moon and stars looked down upon them all. Then Isabella was sold and separated from her mother. She was made to work hard, then made to marry, then promised freedom but not granted it, so finally she "seized Freedom with her own hands." Her son was sold away from her, and she used the law to get him back. After reuniting with some of her own siblings, she decided to make "a journey—a sojourn—to tell the truth about Slavery." Schmidt details the states she stopped in and quotes words she used to speak her truth. (The bibliography describes the manuscript from which her words are quoted.) The poetic text highlights her inner journey, giving readers not just a strong historical figure, but a human being in insufferable circumstances, a feat not often accomplished in books for young readers, particularly about enslaved people. Minter's art is emotional and haunting, with colors of blue and auburn, near-transparent silhouettes, faces that have seen too much, and nature looking on. The art itself tells stories of stolen childhood, torn families, and finding purpose. Powerful, moving, necessary. (biographical note, artist's note) (Picture book/biography. 6-12)

Kirkus Reviews