Steal Away

by Jennifer Armstrong

Book Overview

1896, Susannah, Bethlehem, Mary and Free. Two women in their 50s, two girls 13--drawn together to write down the story of the women's 1855 escape from a slaveholding farm in Virginia. Susannah's guardian is Bethlehem's master--a minister and advocate of slavery. When the women are themselves 13, mistress and slave defiantly join forces to steal away North to freedom. Bethlehem, 1855: It was a longer road that I had ever guessed, and I am on it still...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0531059839
• ISBN13: 9780531059838
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Orchard Books (NY)
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 11 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 6 and higher

Customer Reviews

Really?

Steal Away by Kacie Mazur Hour 7 I would rate the book Steal Away by Jennifer Armstrong with a fie star rating. I would rate it with this rating because of the time frame and how well it fit in with the characters. The whole book was just astonishing. The sense were just so really you would never want to put the book down. The book just went together so well. I loved this book, and all the details that it contents. The author really made all the events that dealt with discrimination. Also the belief that Susannah had for the black slave was so beautiful and that shows that some people really do care. I have not really read any books that really went along with this story but in the future will be filled with more of these types of books. The way that people were treated in the past and still today just makes the biggest different in the people that are here today. People to this day don't realize that all people have feelings and do care. The way blacks and slaves were treated in the past is just the biggest mess. "How can the slaves make a living if the whites just give then the bare minute?" asked Susannah. Well the answers to that one little question was answered but the people that didn't care. In ways the people cared it was just against the peoples beliefs to speak of.

IS HOME MORE THAN JUST A PLACE?

This book is hard to put down, for Jennifer Armstrong weaves a compelling story of interracial friendships--a tale within a tale which spans 3 generations. Alternating between 1855 (when Slavery was grimly legal) and the "present" of 1896, STEAL AWAY presents readers with a literary device known shared narratives, so that each girl very has the opportunity to give a first-person account of their flight from Virginia to the their new life up North. Both their modern counterparts, Mary and Free, are captivated, as elderly women whom they love and respect recount the details of this 40-year-old odyssey; the girls share their writing-down task, as they marvel at the pages--the seal of their lifelong devotion. Will two strange girls be able to bond, by the mere act of the retelling, for it was both a physical and an emotional journey to find freedom and Home? Thirteen-year-old Susannah is suddenly orphaned and forced to leave the family farm in Vermont, with all its precious memories of her parents, the boy next door, and her carefree existence. She must travel by train (an ordeal in itself) down to a new world, in Virginia, to the farm of her Reverend uncle, who firmly believes in the insitution of slavery. But Susannah will never fit into this genteel Southern society; she does not even know how to treat or address her own personal slave! Longing to put plantation life and its immoral abuse of dark-skinned human beings behind her forever, spunky Susannah resolves to run away and sneak back to the only home she has ever known. But she needs the help of more worldy-wise Bethlehem, to prepare for this dangerous enterprise. Suddenly circumstances force both girls to depart together, with a minimum of preparation. Beth longs for Canada--a place on a map where there is no slavery. Would she truly be safe in free Vermont? Susannah has also broken the law, for she taught Beth to read, and now is helping a slave escape from its rightful owner. Can two young teenage girls disappear without a trace, even disguised as boys? Will there be anyone to trust on this perilous undertaking? What do they know of the Undeground Railroad? Their relationship undergoes many transformations, as Susannah becomes increasingly dependent on her pessimistic companion for survival. Yet Bethlehem dreads the unspoken but inevitable fork in the road--where each one must choose which path leads to her true Home in a hostile world. A gripping tale which will captivate readers of all ages with its raw emotions and mutual coming of age; it offers implications for today's racial relations and should have won some Newbery award!

Facts are right!

Ms. Armstrong takes the reader into the heart of tension between slavery and abolition, white and black, young and old. While fiction, the historic facts are accurate making the story work to draw readers into a better understanding of history. I enjoyed the interplay of two voices either while in the past or in the "present" of late 19th century. Good book for teachers to use with students fifth grade and up.

The story pulls you in and doesn't let go...

The flight of Bethlehem and Susannah is unlike any other runaway story you have ever read. Though both are running to "freedom" together, the white orphan is not realy freed until 40 years after the black slave. Friendship and betrayal are closely examined in the story set in 1855 and 1896.

wonderful on any level

I reccomend this book to anyone. A story of 2 girls, a white yankee and a slave, banding together to fight for freedom, and so much more. This powerful story is testament to the struggles of the races in the 1800's. Whether you are interested in slavery and the south or not, this book is for you.