Wolf by the Ears

by Ann Rinaldi

Book Overview

The acclaimed author of The Last Silk Dress and Time Enough For Drums tells the intense, provocative story of a slave, Harriet Hemings, who some believe was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590434128
• ISBN13: 9780590434126
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.7"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Ann Rinaldi at her Best!!

Along with Time Enough For Drums, this is one of my favorite Ann Rinaldi books!! I was easily transported to Monticello in 1820-1822, and I felt like I really got to know all of the characters. As I was reading this book, I became Harriet Hemings, and I felt her pain, happiness, sadness, and confusion. The ending is great, although it leaves you hoping for more!! Maybe Ann Rinaldi will write a sequel! I hope so! Anyway, read this book! You won't want to miss it!

A great book for both young and old

Wolf by the Ears, by Ann Rinaldi is a great book for both young and old readers. It sets back in the time right after Thomas Jefferson was President. Now living a Monticello, the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence has his own servants. Harriet Hemmings, one of his servants has lived there all her life. She is called a slave, but that's is not the only thing she has been called. There are rumors going around Monticello, that Harriet and her bothers are Thomas Jefferson's children. On Harriet's twenty-first birthday, she has the choice to leave the only people she's known, for the free world. Harriet realizes that she does get special attention, privileges that other slaves don't normally get, and that she is lighter skinned than other servants, but that doesn't mean that Thomas Jefferson, her master and the former president, is her father... or does it? In this story of freedom and slavery, a girl and her brothers have to choose between the life they are living, with there family and friends, and the life where they could be free, but alone. I feel that this book is a book everyone should read. It shows that one girls' determination to make a difference in her life, can make a difference in many others. It shows that with determination, someone who was a slave, can become a free person. Rinaldi did a great job at capturing the emotion, and determination of one person, and showing that with help, and a little bit of luck, any thing can happen.

Every girl HAS to read this book!

This was the best book, really! I cried at the end and couldn't believe how strong the character, Harriet, was. All I know is I could never have done what she did, for it takes incredible strength. This story is very heartfelt and loving, about a young women who decides who she is and what she wants to be. Everyone who loves touching stories filled with emotion, read this book!

White and black:United by their children, divided by society

Harriet Hemings: a white girl, or is she? In the days of plantations and slave owners, there was a tremendous difference between white individuals, and those with darker skin. The dark-skinned people were thought of as no better than animals. What would happen, however, when it became known that there were children who looked light enough to be white, yet were actually black? "How could this be?" many would ask. The answer is simple: one white parent; one black. This is the story of such a union. Ann Rinaldi has woven an intriguing story around the rumors of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, a slave of his. When visitors would see Harriet and her also light-toned siblings, their minds would whir, and abolitionist thoughts would enter their minds. As previously mentioned, slaves were thought of as animals.....usually. These visitors would look at the light skin, and looking into the childrens' eyes, they would realize that perhaps black is just another color. Maybe slaves are people, with minds and feelings. This book deals with these ponderings, and the consequences these light-skinned slaves would face upon trying to pass as white; trying to make a place for themselves in the cruel and often unaccepting communities of the free. Wolf by the Ears is an interesting book, as well as being extremely close to actual history. I recommend it to those interested in such events of that time period, and any individual with compassion towards others, and the will to read a good book

Does Thomas Jefferson's slave want independence?

Thomas Jefferson's slave, Harriet Hemmings, believes only what she wishes. She loves the plantation of Monticello and everyone on it. She's only required to do a small amount of work weaving in the morning and serving people at her mother's request. Though Jefferson treats her well, she refuses to believe she is his slave. Ruined by the rumors that she may be his daughter, Jefferson must hide in its shadows. He has now given her the choice, one that will break her heart, whether she should become free or stay as a slave of her master. She doesn't want the freedom that will rip her family apart and leave her race behind to forget. She would have to become white in eyes of others. She would no longer be a slave, or Harriet Hemmings again. Is her love for her master, his blue eyes and gentleness, enough to make her stay? In this book, Ann Rinaldi creatively shows the emotions of her characters and makes them come alive in the eyes of her readers