Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome

The long journey away from oppression toward a bright future is told through the eyes of young Ruth Ellen who details the change in scenery, laws, and people as her sharecropper family travels on the New York bound Silver Meteor train from North Carolina in May 1939.

Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome, worked in perfect unison with husband and fellow Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator James Ransome to bring the heart of this story to life.

Parents need to know that Overground Railroad pays homage to the journey that millions of African Americans took to escape the rural South and embark on a new journey during what's known as the Great Migration. The family refuses to let go of their dream, despite how hard the journey may be. They are all positive role models, as they display perseverance and great aspirations throughout the story. Ruth Ellen and her parents found the courage to leave their family and home behind under the cover of darkness, due to their unpleasant and dangerous circumstances, in search of the American Dream. Overground Railroad is, as Lesa notes, a story of people who were running from and running to at the same time, and it's a story that will stay with readers long after the final pages.The book portrays a loving African American family in search of a better and brighter future for themselves. James Ransome's mixed-media illustrations are full of bold color and texture, bringing Ruth Ellen's journey to life, from sprawling cotton fields to cramped train cars, the wary glances of other passengers and the dark forest through which Frederick Douglass traveled towards freedom. As they travel, Ruth Ellen reads from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, reflecting on how her journey mirrors her own- until finally the train arrives at its last stop, New York's Penn Station, and the family heads out into a night filled with bright lights, glimmering stars, and new possiblity. Each leg of the trip brings new revelations as scenes out the window of folks working in fields give way to the Delaware River, the curtain that separates the colored car is removed, and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity the family hopes to find come into view. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.

Climbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North- one she can't begin to imagine. A window into a child's experience of the Great Migration from the award-winning creators of Before She Was Harriet and Finding Langston.

Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome