The Slave Dancer (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) - Hardcover

Fox, Paula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689845057 ISBN 13: 9780689845055

Publisher: Atheneum Books, 2001

Synopsis

In this iconic, wrenching Newbery Medal winning book, a young Louisiana boy faces the horrors of slavery when he is kidnapped and forced to work on a slave ship.

Thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier earns a few pennies playing his fife on the docks of New Orleans. One night, on his way home, a canvas is thrown over his head and he's knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, Jessie finds himself aboard a slave ship, bound for Africa. There, the Moonlight picks up ninety-eight black prisoners, and the men, women, and children, chained hand and foot, are methodically crammed into the ship's hold. Jessie's job is to provide music for the slaves to dance to on the ship's deck--not for amusement but for exercise, as a way to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable.

Over the course of the long voyage, Jessie grows more and more sickened by the greed of the sailors and the cruelty with which the slaves are treated. But it's one final horror, when the Moonlight nears her destination, that will change Jessie forever.

Set during the middle of the nineteenth century, when the illegal slave trade was at its height, The Slave Dancer not only tells a vivid and shocking story of adventure and survival but depicts the brutality of slavery with unflinching historical accuracy.

About this title

About the Authors

Paula Fox (1923-2017) wrote books for children and adults, and her work for children earned her the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Newbery Award, and the National Book Award.

Eros Keith has illustrated books for children and young adults including The Slave Dancer and the The House of Dies Drear.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Slave Dancer

By Paula Fox

Atheneum Books

Copyright © 2001 Paula Fox
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780689845055
An Excerpt from The Slave Dancer

        I heard one piercing scream. My teeth began to chatter.

        Then a very small brown face rose above the rail as though it had flown
        up from the sea. It continued to rise slowly until its brown bare chest
        was visible. Then I saw dark hands around its waist. The hands lifted,
        the little girl's legs flew out, and I saw the head of the young man who
        had been carrying her.

        For a second, she sat on the deck, looking all around her, her eyes huge
        with amazement, then she crawled and jumped toward the rail but was forced
        back by the forward propulsion of the man who tottered over the rail,
        unable, it seemed, to bring his body any further. The child hugged the
        young man's neck frantically and buried her face in his hair. At that
        moment, Nicholas Spark bent his thin length and gripped the man's back
        as though he were gathering up cloth, and yanked him altogether over,
        the chains around his ankles striking the deck with a violent clanging.
        The clanging never ceased as one after another the captives struggled
        over the rail and were dropped or dragged onto the deck. How long did
        it all take? I'll never know. None of us moved.

        



Continues...

Excerpted from Slave Dancerby Paula Fox Copyright © 2001 by Paula Fox. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0689845057
• ISBN 13: 9780689845055
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Keith Eros
• Number of pages: 192