It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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and #IMWAYR day
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E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
I almost wish this had been a bit longer and more involved, and written as a book for adults, since I really believe that's the demographic for this subject. Most of the titles on which Nordstrom worked were published well before most current teachers and librarians were born. Yes, some are definitely classics (Charlotte's Web was only given ONE editorial revision-- to retitle the last chapter? Wow.), but others are not much read. I was familiar with the vast majority of the books, but today's tweens are not going to be. Do they really care about Harriet the Spy, which was published the year before I was born? (The copy which I still have in my library is from 1992.)
The reason for this book becomes clear in the later chapters, when there is discussion of books being challenged and banned. This is certainly timely but again, more pertinent to teachers and librarians. My students have very little exposure to information about book bans. The sexual orientation of Nordstrom, as well as several prominent authors, is factually represented, and information about the challenges of this at the time is given.
Will this sell well to schools and public libraries? Definitely. Was it a well done biography that offered a picture of the wider world of children's literature in the 1900s? Absolutely. Will it circulate well in elementary and middle schools? I am not entirely sure.
Twice Enslaved: Liberty and Justice for Henrietta Wood
February 3, 2026 by Calkins Creek
Copy provided by the publisher
History is filled with injustices perpetrated against Black citizens of the US, and Henrietta Wood is just one example of the horrific treatment that enslaved people experienced. Born about 1820 (records were not always kept) in Kentucky, and was sold to a Louisville businessman, and then sold again to the Cirode family. When they moved to Cincinnati, they registered Wood as a free woman, and she did domestic work in the city. Wood was kidnapped in 1853 by the Cirode's daughter, and taken to Kentucky. After a failed lawsuit to try to obtain her freedom, she was sold again and taken to Mississippi. After the Civil War, she returned to Ohio with her son, and in 1870, sued the sheriff who kidnapped her. She was eventually awarded $2,500, the largest amount of reparations ever awarded for slavery reparations. She used this money to send her son to law school, and her descendents went out to a wide array of professional careers.
While it is important to tell stories of enslaved people, I was glad to see that this concentrated on Wood's struggles to gain justice and her eventual success. It's important for young readers to know the horrible situations of the past, but to also realize that Black people strove for agency and worked against the system that oppressed them.
This biography in verse brings to life the fear and anger that motivated Wood to search for justice. The illustration between chapters are rendered digitally, but have an ethereal, collage feel to them. This short book could be shelved in the poetry section of the library, but has enough information to also belong in a nonfiction collection.
The research for this could not have been easy, but was helped by interviews in the newspaper, but some of the holes in Wood's story were filled in from other news accounts. There is a nice bibliography, as well as a page about Juneteenth.
Hubbard and Holyfield's Hammering for Freedom, Lester and Brown's From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, Cline-Ransome and Ransome's Before She Was Harriet, and Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad.
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