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A Voice of Her Own: Candlewick Biographies: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet

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A Voice of Her Own: Candlewick Biographies: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet

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Overview

"Lasky shows not only the facts of Wheatley’s life but also the pain of being an accomplished black woman in a segregated world." — Booklist

In 1761, a young girl was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, who named her Phillis after the slave schooner that had carried her. Kidnapped from her home in Africa and shipped to America, she’d had everything taken from her-her family, her name, and her language. But Phillis had a passion to learn. Amid the tumult of the Revolutionary War, Phillis Wheatley became a poet and ultimately had a book of verse published, establishing herself as the first African- American woman poet this country had ever known.
Back matter includes an author’s note, an illustrator’s note, sources, and an index.

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763660918
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Series:	Candlewick Biographies
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	441,397
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	940L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kathryn Lasky is the author of many books for children, including SUGARING TIME, a Newbery Honor Book; SHOW AND TELL BUNNIES and SCIENCE FAIR BUNNIES; and VISION OF BEAUTY: THE STORY OF SARAH BREEDLOVE WALKER. Kathryn Lasky says she was drawn to Phillis Wheatley’s story because she was fascinated by the relationship between the writer’s voice, her identity as a slave, and freedom.

Paul Lee is a painter and freelance illustrator. He has illustrated the acclaimed AMISTAD RISING by Veronica Chambers, and THE GOOD LUCK CAT by Joy Harjo. While working on A VOICE OF HER OWN, Paul Lee had to do considerable research to make sure the illustrations were historically accurate - research that even entailed renting costumes from a local opera house.

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Editorial Reviews

Lasky's lyrical text combines perfectly with Paul Lee's illustrations to convey Wheatley's remarkable spirit, as well as the tumultuous times in which she lived. — Karen MacPherson

The Washington Post

PW called this picture-book biography of the first published African-American woman poet a "lyrical portrait. The large-scale, realistic acrylics emphasize Wheatley's strength and constancy amidst the turbulent tenor of her times." Ages 8-12. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 4-6-Arriving in Boston in 1760 via slave ship when she was just 7 years old, Wheatley became a learned young woman who was writing poetry by the age of 12. "At seventeen Phillis became famous" when her poem honoring the Reverend George Whitefield was read in the Colonies and in England. Lasky's episodic account breaks the picture-book text into chapters that are sometimes fictionalized or speculative and other times explanatory as they sketch the poet's growing accomplishments, her brief trip to England, and the pre-Revolutionary War events unfolding around her. Narrated in simple staccato sentences, the opening slave ship scene emphasizes the starkness of this experience. Later explanations of historical events become more complex. Lasky draws numerous parallels between the poet's love of freedom and the patriots' cause and concludes with her hard at work writing into the night to describe her African roots to a British soldier. The author's focus is on the poet's intellectual accomplishments and the publication of her book-"the first ever written by a black American woman." Wheatley's adult life and early death are skimmed in an epilogue. Lee's handsome acrylic paintings, including a commanding cover portrait, convey a fine sense of the period. However, in the depictions of Wheatley, the young woman never changes much over the years. Except for a small number of manuscript reproductions, sources are not acknowledged. A bit vague and disconnected at times, this book fills a gap as few accounts of the legendary Wheatley are currently available for children.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

A sizable dose of imagination seeks to illuminate the life of Phillis Wheatley, the 18th-century slave poet, but reveals more about the author than the subject. Lasky (Porkenstein, 2002, etc.) opens the story in the hold of the slaver Phillis and then follows Wheatley's life and career as she is purchased by the Wheatleys of Boston, learns to speak, read, and write English, and begins to write and then publish her own poems. Throughout, the author imputes thoughts and feelings-"Boston was the strangest sight Phillis had ever seen"-without substantiation and even introduces dialogue which, without documentation, can only be assumed to be invented-" 'What will you call her?' John Wheatley asked his wife." Perhaps most poignantly, Phillis is presented as treasuring a memory of her mother making an offering to the morning sun; however, even in the poem to which Lasky refers for this image, it does not appear in Wheatley's own writing. Poignant indeed, but the only person the reader can be certain of treasuring this vision is Lasky herself. Lee's (Hank Aaron: Brave in Every Way, 2001, etc.) acrylics glow with color, as if themselves lit by candlelight, effectively enhancing the sentimental mood of the narrative. The representations of Wheatley are clearly based on the only known portrait of the poet, the frontispiece of her volume of published poetry; a certain lack of expression in the illustrations, however, gives her an air of inscrutability. There is not a whiff of a bibliography, not even to refer readers to Wheatley's poetry, which is widely available in print and electronic formats. An author's note describes in lofty terms her motivations behind bringing Wheatley's story to apicture-book audience: "To be voiceless is to be dehumanized. . . . Phillis's first liberation came when she learned to read and write and discovered her own voice as a poet." It is a pity that Lasky chooses to impose her own feelings and voice upon this woman whose voice she purports to celebrate. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews

Lasky's lyrical text combines perfectly with Paul Lee's illustrations to convey Wheatly's remarkable spirit, as well as the tumultuous times in which she lived.
—Washington Post Book World

Lasky shows how Wheatley's struggle for personal identity and respect paralleled the prevailing political talk of freedom and revolution. Lee's carefully researched paintings give a vivid picture of colonial Boston through the eyes of an extraordinary woman.
—San Francisco Chronicle

In this moving picture book, biographer Kathryn Lasky traces important themes in Phillis's poetry while noting the terrible way slavery rendered so many voiceless.
—Washington Parent

Lasky shows not only the facts of Wheatley's life but also the pain of being an accomplished black woman in a segregated world.
—Booklist

From the Publisher

A Voice of Her Own: Candlewick Biographies: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet

A Voice of Her Own: Candlewick Biographies: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet

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