Reviews

Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons

lundyd98's review

This story is actually the same book as "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Jacob Harriets, which I believe to be a better version.

bekahbea86's review

2.0

I liked the history of this stroy and it helps you understand how horribal slavery really was and what they went through. But story wise it was boaring. I could have just read a page out of a text book and gotten the same information and feelings about her situations that I got from reading this.

danyell919's review against another edition

3.0

Wasn't my favorite ... "Nightjohn" and "Sarny" by Gary Paulsen were better.

she_reads_alot's review

4.0

Well written. Informative and heartbreaking. From the POV of Harriet Ann Jacobs about her life and eventual escape from a southern plantation. Great discussion type book for middle graders. I really enjoyed the the pictures, drawings, and maps in the back of the book.

willowbark's review

4.0

Very interesting book. It was hard to read at times, but that's true of most books about slavery. I'm now very interested in the real book written by the real life main character of this one.

jybaker's review against another edition

3.0

Harriet Jacobs has an amazing story. I learned about her life during the African American Cultural Celebration in Raleigh, and was pleasantly surprised to find this book in our library collection. It was in the Juvenile section, and I'm moving it to YA - there are situations in this book that make it unsuitable for young children.

I wish the author had continued the theme of the book throughout the text. The last section is narrated in a more textual fashion, but would have been much more effective and interesting had it been also told in the form of a letter. If she had done that, I would have given this book a much higher rating. Harriet's resilience was amazing, and I will definitely be looking for other books about her life.