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Zusatztext * “This memorable portrayal . . . proves gripping from beginning to end.”–Starred! Publishers Weekly * “A thrilling escape story! right until the last chapter.”–Starred! Booklist “Strong characters and an innovative! suspenseful plot distinguish Pearsall’s first novel . . . A compelling story.”– School Library Journal “One of the best underground railroad narratives in recent years . . . This succeeds as a suspenseful historical adventure.”– Kirkus Reviews “Pearsall’s heartbreaking! yet hopeful story provides a fine supplement to lessons on slavery.”– Teacher Magazine AWARDS The 2003 Scott O’ Dell Award for Historical Fiction A Booklist Top 10 First Novel A Booklist Top Ten Historical Fiction for Youth Informationen zum Autor Shelley Pearsall Klappentext Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler's slave, and working the Kentucky farm is the only life he's ever known—until one dark night in 1859, that is. With no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and, together, they run. The journey north seems much more frightening than Master Hackler ever was, and Samuel's not sure what freedom means aside from running, hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the Underground Railroad, Samuel uncovers the secret of his own past—and future. And old Harrison begins to see past a whole lifetime of hurt to the promise of a new life—and a poignant reunion— in Canada. In a heartbreaking and hopeful first novel, Shelley Pearsall tells a suspenseful, emotionally charged story of freedom and family. Trouble Don't Last includes a historical note and map.TROUBLE Truth is, trouble follows me like a shadow. To begin with, I was born a slave when other folks is born white. My momma was a slave and her momma a slave before that, so you can see we are nothing but a family of trouble. Master sold Momma before I was even old enough to remember her, and two old slaves named Harrison and Lilly had to raise me up like I was one of their own, even though I wasn't. Then, when I was in my eleventh year, the old slave Harrison decided to jump into trouble himself, and he tried to run away. Problem was, I had to go with him. THE BROKEN PLATE It all started on a just-so day in the month of September 1859, when I broke my master's plate while clearing the supper table. I tried to tell Lilly that if Master Hackler hadn't taken a piece of bread and sopped pork fat all over his old plate, I wouldn't have dropped it. But Lilly kept her lips pressed tight together, saying nothing as she scraped the vegetable scraps into the hog pails. "And Young Mas Seth was sticking his foot this-away and that-away, tryin to trip me up," I added. Lilly didn't even look at me, just kept scraping and scraping with her big, brown hands. "Maybe it was a spirit--could be Old Mas Hackler's dead spirit--that got ahold of me right then and made that plate fly right outta my hands." Lilly looked up and snorted, "Spirits. If Old Mas Hackler wanted to haunt this house, he'd go an' turn a whole table on its end, not bother with one little china plate in your hands." She pointed her scraping knife at me. "You gotta be more careful, Samuel, or they gonna sell you off sure as anything, and I can't do nothin to help you then. You understand me, child?" "Yes'm," I answered, looking down at my feet. Every time Lilly said something like this to me, which was more often than not, it always brought up the same picture in my head. A picture of my momma. She had been sold when I was hardly even standing on my own two legs. Right after the Old Master Hackler had died. Lilly said that selling off my momma paid for his fancy carved headstone and oak burying box, but I'm not sure all tha...
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Shelley Pearsall
