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When Isabella was small, her mother, Mau-mau Bett, took her
outside to see the stars and the moon. Mau-mau Bett said
that what Isabella saw in the sky were the same things her
brothers and sisters could see and that comforted Isabella.
She couldn’t remember her brothers and sisters. There were
“ten or twelve” of them, and they’d been sold as slaves when
she was just a baby.
At nine years old, Isabella was sold away from Mau-mau Bett,
along with a small flock of sheep. She had the stars and the
moon to comfort her but, though it hurt to be away from her
mother, Isabella was kept so busy that she scarcely had a
chance to think about it. She worked first for this family,
then for that man, and another until she was forced to marry
a slave named Thomas and have children of her own.
She sometimes wondered if they, and their children would
also be slaves someday. Once, she’d asked God if that was
“right.”
And then came the day when a promise was broken and Isabella
had enough. She grabbed her baby daughter and she
“seized Freedom with her own hands,” escaping to the home of
two people who wouldn’t let her down. They helped Isabella
stand up to her owner, and the courage to stand tall, to
take a former slave owner to court, and to get her young son
back from where he’d been sold down South.
She never forgot her brothers and sisters. She found some of
them and lost others, which helped her decide that she had a
“sojourn” ahead of her. And so, Isabella changed her name to
Sojourner Truth, and she began to walk…
Sometimes, in searching for a really good children’s book,
you may find one that seems almost like a gift to the parent
as well.
That’s what you’ll get in So Tall Within.
Beautifully written with words that are partial poetry and
part storytime, this book offers kids an easy-to-love
biography of a woman they may have heard about, but just not
enough. Author Gary D. Schmidt tells the saga of Sojourner
Truth, her resolve, and her work – sometimes brutally,
sometimes with fist-pumping joy, and always with beautiful
artwork by Daniel Minter. While story plus art are, indeed,
in a children’s book, both are where the gift for parents
lies: pay close attention to left-page words and the
illustrations; they are breathtakingly haunting and
absolutely perfect.
For five-to-eight-year-olds who love a good story, or for
parents who cherish a good read-aloud session and appreciate
back-of-book biographical information, here it is. Your kids
won’t walk for So Tall Within – they’ll run for it.
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