Nightjohn

In Gary Paulsen's short chapter book following Sarnie, a slave on a Southern Plantation who from the help of the mysterious "Nightjohn" learns to write a few letters, she starts to use them and since she was a slave she wasn't supposed to that gets Nightjohn in a lot of trouble. She thinks this her last time using letters. But Nightjohn helps her and changes her life and the lives of other slaves forever through the power of letters.

This book was more serious then I expected it to be, really it was quit violent and scary. I think this book really captures that time period and how it was like to be a slave. They write lots of books about adult slaves, but this book is one of the few about a child slave. I think the word choice was really good, though I thought it should have been longer because it's hard to really "get to know" the characters in a 90 page book. I also wanted to know more about the slave's daily life because it didn't explain their daily life too much. It's always easier to find good qualities in books then the bad but I think it way a pretty good book for 90 pages. A great book on the time period.

P.S.: If you want more info on her life read:

Sarnie: A Life Remembered, the sequel.

3/5