Freedom Over Me:  Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life is a picture book, but not a picture book aimed at preschoolers.  Written in subtle free verse, it tackles tough topics like slavery and the concept of people being treated as property.  The artwork is strong and vivid and each of the eleven slaves has their portrait overlaid on a copy of a historical document or a collage of historical documents.  Each character then has two pages of verse:  one page describing their current life and responsibilities and one page describing their roots and their dreams.  This is a good book for bringing the slave issue up close and personal to young readers.  How can a person be treated as property?  As if they were the same as a cow or a piece of farming equipment?  This will be a text that will find wide application in school curriculum to generate critical thinking and discussion.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  Report of death from natural causes; reports parents were killed in slave raids; report people died on slave ships; report of head injury; report of slave insurrections.  (All general statements in nature and non-descriptive.)

Sex/Nudity:  Statement that a slave stood “naked on the auction blocks”.

Mature Subject Matter:

Slavery, racial discrimination, death of parents.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None