Before She Was Harriet facts for kids
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| Author | Lesa Cline-Ransome |
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| Illustrator | James E. Ransome |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's picture book |
| Publisher | Holiday House |
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Publication date
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2017 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 32 |
| Awards | Coretta Scott King Award |
| ISBN | 978-0-8234-2047-6 |
| OCLC | 51795 |
Before She Was Harriet is a children's picture book published in 2017. It was written by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by James E. Ransome. The book was first released by Holiday House. In 2018, it received an honorary Coretta Scott King Award.
Contents
Discovering Harriet Tubman's Life
This children's book tells the amazing story of Harriet Tubman's life. It uses a special kind of poetry called free verse. The story starts with Harriet as an old woman. Then, it goes backward in time, showing her younger days.
Harriet's Many Important Roles
The book shows the many different jobs and roles Harriet Tubman had. She was a true hero!
- She was a suffragist. This means she fought for women's right to vote.
- She worked as a boatman. She helped enslaved people cross the Combahee River to freedom.
- She was a spy for the Union army during the American Civil War.
- She worked as a nurse, caring for soldiers.
- She was a savior. She bravely helped her own parents escape from slavery.
- She was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. This was a secret network that helped many enslaved people find their way to freedom.
- Before all this, she was an enslaved woman named Minty.
- Even earlier, she was a young enslaved girl named Araminta.
The book explains that she chose to change her name to Harriet when she escaped slavery. The story ends with a picture of Harriet Tubman. She is sitting on a train, finally free.
How the Book Was Made
The book Before She Was Harriet was created by a husband-and-wife team. Lesa Cline-Ransome wrote the words, and James E. Ransome drew the pictures. They have worked together on fifteen books before this one.
Bringing Harriet's Story to Life
Lesa Cline-Ransome was a bit worried about writing a book about Harriet Tubman. This was because many books about Tubman already existed. Her husband, James, did some research. He suggested she focus on all the different important roles Harriet Tubman played in her life.
James Ransome had illustrated books about slavery before. So, finding pictures and ideas for his drawings was not hard. Instead of making the pictures perfectly accurate to history, he focused on making them feel emotionally true. He wanted the pictures to show how Harriet and others felt.
