Moses

Moses

Moses

Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

Hyperion Books for Children, 2006

37 pages

Historical Fiction

Moses is a historical fiction book about Harriet Tubman who was born into slavery. Tubman decides to leave her husband and family and escape for freedom on the Underground Railroad. All she had with her was her faith in God. This faith allowed her to help other slaves escape to freedom.

The illustrations in this book look like they were done using watercolor and pencil. Kadir Nelson really illustrates the details on each page. My favorite illustration from the book is Harriet Tubman’s face up close where you can see the wrinkles and lines on her face. I can see her independence and strong-willingness to escape to freedom in this photo. The text placement is very informal and the pages are double page spreads.

This book will be good to use when teaching about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. There are facts in the back of the book discussing both of these topics. Students can research more about Harriet Tubman and see how her life was changed drastically by fleeing on the Underground Railroad. Students can also research the songs that sometimes contained coded messages to aid escapes.

Moses won the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award in 2007. Carole Boston Weatherford has authored many children’s books that have won awards. She has received the NAACP Image Award and the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council for Social Studies. Kadir Nelson is also a very talented artist who has won many awards including the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators Original Art show.