TITLE: The Slave DancerAUTHOR: Paula Fox
STARTED: June 3, 2009
FINISHED: June 4, 2009
PAGES: 176
GENRE: Juvenile
FIRST SENTENCE: In a hinged wooden box upon the top of which was carved a winged fish, my mother kept the tools of her trade.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] "Take up the pipe, Claudius," a voice growled near Jessie's bound head. "He's worth nothing without his pipe!"
Snatched from the docks of New Orleans, thirteen-year-old Jessie is thrown aboard a slave ship where he must play his fife so that captured slaves will "dance," to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable for their owners' use.
Jessie is sickened as he witnesses the horrible practices of the slave trade. But even those horrors can't compare to the one final event awaiting Jessie's witness. Can the cruelty to his fellow human beings be stopped? And will it be too late when it finally does stop?
THOUGHTS: This book may have won a Newberry, but I was not a fan. Of all the books I read for my course (and there will be a photo of the complete stack soon) this was the only one that felt like a chore. I could not get into the story or the writing no matter how hard I tried. Boy was I glad when this one was done.
RATING: 3/10 [Poor, Lost Interest]
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