Book Detective

Stolen from her village, sold to the highest bidder,
fifteen-year-old Amari has only one thing left of her own: hope.

Amari's life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her tribe, adored by her family, and living in a beautiful village, she could not have imagined everything could be taken away from her in an instant. But when slave traders invade her village and brutally murder her entire family, Amari finds herself dragged away to a slave ship headed to the Carolinas, where she is bought by a plantation owner and given to his son as a birthday present.

Survival seems all that Amari can hope for. But then an act of unimaginable cruelty provides her with an opportunity to escape, and with an indentured servant named Polly she flees to Fort Mose, Florida, in search of sanctuary at the Spanish colony. Can the elusive dream of freedom sustain Amari and Polly on their arduous journey, fraught with hardship and danger?

Day of Tears by Julius Lester

Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen

Sarny by Gary Paulsen

Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons by Ann Rinaldi

Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden

Jip: His Story by Katherine Paterson

47 by Walter Mosley

The Healing by Jonathan Odell

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers

Taking Liberty by Ann Rinaldi

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

Glory over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg

Burn My Heart by Beverley Naidoo

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park