The Underground Railroad For Kids

A Civil War–era girl’s courage is tested in this haunting, wordless story. When a farm girl discovers a runaway slave hiding in the barn, she is at once startled and frightened. But the stranger’s fearful eyes weigh upon her conscience, and she must make a difficult choice. Will she have the courage to help him? Unspoken gifts of humanity unite the girl and the runaway as they each face a journey: one following the North Star, the other following her heart. Henry Cole’s unusual and original rendering of the Underground Railroad speaks directly to our deepest sense of compassion. Praise for Unspoken A New York Times Best Illustrated Book “Designed to present youngsters with a moral choice . . . the author, a former teacher, clearly intended Unspoken to be a challenging book, its somber sepia tone drawings establish a mood of foreboding.” —The New York Times Book Review “Moving and emotionally charged.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Gorgeously rendered in soft dark pencils, this wordless book is reminiscent of the naturalistic pencil artistry of Maurice Sendak and Brian Selznick.” —School Library Journal, starred review “Cole’s . . . beautifully detailed pencil drawings on cream-colored paper deftly visualize a family’s ruggedly simple lifestyle on a Civil War–era homestead, while facing stark, ethical choices . . . Cole conjures significant tension and emotional heft . . . in this powerful tale of quiet camaraderie and courage.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Gail Nelson is an unobtrusive narrator who lets Harriet Tubman's deeds and personality speak for themselves. And speak they do!" - AudioFile

When Cassie Louise Lightfoot encounters Harriet Tubman and a mysterious train in the sky, what follows is a compelling journey in which the author masterfully integrates fantasy and historical fact (School Library Journal, starred review). Full color.

Provides twenty-one activities that kids can do to learn about the Underground Railroad.

Slavery is a sensitive topic in American history. This book provides resources and lesson plans for a week-long unit covering slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the abolition movement built around an award-winning board game. In Freedom: The Underground Railroad, students will take on the role of abolitionists helping slaves reach freedom in Canada. Background knowledge, primary source documents, and detailed lesson plans on teaching slavery and using the game provide full support for instruction. Customized Freedom mini-game scenarios designed by Brian Mayer and Christopher Harris. Game: Freedom: The Underground Railroad. Brian Mayer. Academy Games, 2013.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. • The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from--there were no trains or tracks, only "conductors" who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about "passengers" on the "Railroad," this book chronicles slaves' close calls with bounty hunters, exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom. With 80 black-and-white illustrations throughout and a sixteen-page black-and-white photo insert, the Underground Railroad comes alive!

Imagine leaving everything you’ve ever known—your friends, family, and home—to travel along roads you’ve never seen before, getting help from people you’ve never met before, with the constant threat of capture hovering over your every move. Would you risk your life on the Underground Railroad to gain freedom from slavery? In The Underground Railroad: Navigate the Journey from Slavery to Freedom, readers ages 9 to 12 examine how slavery developed in the United States and what motivated abolitionists to work for its destruction. The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses operated by conductors and station masters, both black and white. Readers follow true stories of enslaved people who braved patrols, the wilderness, hunger, and their own fear in a quest for freedom. In The Underground Railroad, readers dissect primary sources, including slave narratives and runaway ads. Projects include composing a song with a hidden message and navigating by reading the nighttime sky. Amidst the countless tragedies that centuries of slavery brought to African Americans lie tales of hope, resistance, courage, sacrifice, and victory—truly an American story.