SLIS 5420 Module 4 Newbery Winner THE SLAVE DANCER

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
Book Cover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slave_Dancer

Book Summary

The setting of the story is in New Orleans, Louisiana. One night when 11-year-old Jessie Bollier is walking back from his Auntie's house to his own, two men capture him in a canvas bag and takes to a ship, The Moonlight. Jessie plays his fife and these men need someone who knows how to play a music instrument on their transporting ship for the slaves to keep the slaves upbeat and dancing from time to time to stay healthy. Jessie experiences the hardship for months on a ship and also experiences many conflicting emotions toward his shipmates and slavery. The Moonlight goes through a storm right before it reaches land. Jessie and a slave boy about his age are the only two survivors. The slave boy is sent to the north for his safety and Jessie moves to Boston with his mother and sister and starts over his life. Even though the time on The Moonlight is not a long one but it haunts him for the rest of his life.

Reference

Fox, Paula. (1973). The slave dancer, Bradbury Press, Inc.

Librarian's Corner

The Slave Dancer is a good resource for 5th graders when they are studying the slave trade in American History. Even though all children in America study this part in history, it is still difficult for students to make sense and understand the ordeal. As an adult, I've gone through many classes in high school and college on slavery, but I was still shocked while reading this book. The Slave Dancer is one of the many great literature that covers that part in history with graphic descriptions of the horrible aspects of slave trade. The children are sheltered more in the present time compare to children lived in a couple decades ago. I would recommend this book to students 5th grade and up.

Reviews

From Historicalnovelsociety.com

This reissued Newbery Honor book tells what could easily be a true story. Beginning in 1839, thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier is on the bustling New Orleans docks playing his fife for pennies. He does this every day to help support his widowed mother and ailing sister. He’s not afraid of the rough sailors who surround him; his father, until he drowned, was one of them. One night, he is kidnapped and carried aboard The Moonlight, bound for Africa. The hard men on the ship set him to work learning what might have been his trade anyway, but this is a slave ship. On the return voyage, he will “dance” the slaves, who will be released for a short time each day from the hold where they are packed like sardines. This book does not turn away from the horrors of the trade. Jessie carries buckets of human waste from the filthy hold and witnesses disease and floggings. He learns how the sailors justify the horror in which they participate, and how the man who smiles the most can be the one who betrays you. This is an unshrinking look at a terrible chapter in our history, and at the horror of slavery, which even today still exists. The Slave Dancer is moving, harrowing, and, unfortunately, entirely believable.

Historical Novel Society. (n.d.). [Review for the book The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox.] Historicalnovelsociety.com.

From Kirkus
A forceful shipboard story of a boy impressed by slavers to exercise the captives, playing his fife for their bizarre daily dance.

Kirkus Review. (n.d.). [Review for the book The Slave Dancer,by Paula Fox.]. Kirkus Review.

Value to the Library
Upper Elementary Grades & Middle School

The Slave Dancer is going to be included in a display with books that cover topics on slavery and colonization when the 5th graders are studying this part of the American History in their social studies class. Many 5th grade teachers teach social studies topics using literature to kill two birds with one stone. As a librarian, I can help the fifth grade social studies or language arts teachers by sharing books on this topic in a display. I noticed that the students tend to check out books that are recommended by teachers. If the fifth graders are studying slavery and see these books displayed in the library, there is a better chance of these books being checked out.