Allen Jay and the underground railroad

Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad Written by: Marlene Targ Brill Illustrated by Janice Lee Porter
What makes this story special is that the people are real and the events show cased in this story could have possibly happened. The story about little Allen Jay takes place in Ohio in the 1840’s when times were incredibly different from the way we live now. Allen Jay belongs to a Quaker family that promotes equal living among all people; in this case, African Americans. One day Allen’s father ask a great favor of Allen; to help a runaway slave. Allen’s father, Isaac was under investigation and couldn’t get caught so indeed it was up to Allen to save the slave known as Henry James. Allen Jay takes Henry on horse and carriage through the Underground Railroad to his grandfather’s house all the while hearing horrible slave stories of Henry’s past and up until that night, his life. Later that night Allen Jay’s grandfather helped Henry make his way up to Canada where everyone was equal and free.
The stories strength lies within the plot; a riveting, scary, and close to home for most young preteens plot brings a lot of life to a subject that went on only a little longer then a 100 years ago (approx). The plot shows how a slave was forced to do drastic things to gain freedom and if they don’t take the chance for freedom they would die having lived the miserable life of a slave. There are pictures on every page that resemble a colored pencil like feel. Although the pictures help move along the story, they are not as strong as they should be for the plot which has a lot of emotion and depth. I would use this is a classroom setting when studying history and the world we once lived in where people weren’t treated equally let alone fairly. I could use this to encourage children to see how things have changed and that it only took one person making small changes to change a person’s life. With the main character being so young, a lot of children could relate; I could have them write a journal entry as if they were in Allen Jay’s shoes and what they would do if they were asked to do such a dangerous thing.