BOOK DESCRIPTION
When Alice Sanborn and best friend Jerushah cross paths with a bounty hunter in rural northern Vermont, the teens stage a daring rescue for former slave Sarah Johnson—but winter weather, politics, and challenges of mountain life bring more danger. It’s March 1850 in small-town Vermont, and tempers flare over the “right kind” of Abolition. When the two fifteen-year-olds suspect Alice’s older brother William is taking dangerous risks to shelter a fugitive hiding at the inn, they see Sarah’s safety at risk. With help from the skillful but mysterious Solomon McBride, the girls head toward the wilder countryside along the Canadian border. Perils abound, including back at home. Is it all Alice’s fault? What should she do? Even a teen can take strong action—but which way is right, and how can she choose?
BOOK REVIEW
The Long Shadow is a young adult novel set in Vermont prior to the Civil War. Best friends Alice and Jerushah have also become friends with a formerly enslaved child, Sarah Johnson, who had previously escaped to Vermont and is waiting on her parents to join her. When a bounty hunter arrives, looking for a man who escaped slavery and is being hidden by Alice’s brother William, the three girls and a friend, Solomon, find themselves on an adventure aimed at protecting Sarah, but they are all soon in danger. This is Book 1 of The Winds of Freedom series.
This is a well-written YA novel that does a great job of describing what life was like in 19th Century Vermont prior to the start of the Civil War. With Alice, the reader experiences Vermont farm life, including daily chores, caring for newborn lambs, and participating in a sugaring off. But another reality of life at that time was that the United States was heading towards a civil war, and the people who had escaped slavery were seeking refuge. I loved the relationship between Alice and her friends, the growth of Alice on her journey, and the willingness of so many people to help Sarah and keep her safe. I used to think that once an enslaved person escaped to the North, they were free, but money-hungry hunters of people were allowed to capture them even in free states, and the author portrays this so well in the person of Henry Clinton, bounty hunter.
The descriptions of the wilds of Northern Vermont at that time are beautifully done, and the book is impeccably researched. There is love, danger, and heartbreaking loss woven into this story of a tumultuous and terrible time in the history of Vermont, and of the United States. Highly recommended.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Storytelling is Beth Kanell’s native language – and she learned it from her mother, who taught her to fill in the blanks as a story emerged. As a single parent in Vermont, for years she told stories “on the side” and developed a specialty in tales for teens (always starting with something scary!). Endlessly in love with Vermont, she began bringing the most fascinating parts of its history into her narratives, and discovered that what she really likes after all is writing fiction that explores the lives of young people caught up in the force of change. She is also a non-stop mystery reader, so she grapples for new and unusual plot twists, as well as the magic of the Green Mountain state.
PURCHASE LINK
*Click on the cover to purchase The Long Shadow
**Soon I will be reviewing Book 2: The Ardent Flame, and Book 3, The Bitter and the Sweet
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