One slave is the poetic voice for those who toil on a cotton plantation and look to the North Star, following the Underground Railroad to freedom. Shange wrote the poems in response to Brown's paintings and provides a sound stage for not only the many men and women who sought freedom but also those who were fearful of leaving. The dramatic oil paintings open in the stark white of the cotton fields. In the following tableaux, slaves are whipped, run through swamps, barely ahead of trackers and their dogs, and receive help from white abolitionists and Sojourner Truth. One powerful double-page spread shows a runaway hiding under floor boards, with slivers of light coming through. The end of the road finally comes in Michigan, where white snow on ground and trees serves as a beautiful counterpoint to the opening scene. Painter and poet previously collaborated on We Troubled the Waters (2009), and in this volume they have created a focused narrative that is troubling, violent and soul-stirring. In the title poem, the man says "ah may get tired / good Lawd / ah may may be free." Inspirational pairings of art and verse to read and recite in tribute to those who walked that perilous road. (Picture book/poetry. 12 & up)

The author-illustrator team from We Troubled the Waters (2009) tells a powerful story of slavery and escape. Clear, first-person free verse and unframed paintings unflinchingly show the oppressors' brutality as well as the triumph of those who never give up until they make it to freedom. The scenes begin on a plantation, with a slave picking cotton and planning escape. In a horrific double-page spread, an overseer whips captured runaways and screams, "Never again," but the speaker knows differently: "We'll try try again." The paintings of the Underground Railroad in dark shades of purple and green show looming forest shapes: is a stranger a spy? Sojourner Truth threatens to shoot a hesitating runaway ("either you coming wit' us . . . or you die heah"). And whites are both treacherous trackers and brave abolitionists. There is a whole story in the scene of the runaway in a hole beneath a house, listening to the party above. Unlike many runaway stories, these triumphant words and pictures never downplay the cruelty from which many escaped.

This collection begins with a man in a cotton field and ends with three newly free African Americans in Canada. Shange's poems are filled with a sense of urgency; most of the paintings are dark, and Brown effectively uses dabs of white to convey a sense of danger (moonlight reflected off the shirt of a runaway, making him visible to trackers, for example).

One slave is the poetic voice for those who toil on a cotton plantation and look to the North Star, following the Underground Railroad to freedom. Shange wrote the poems in response to Brown's paintings and provides a sound stage for not only the many men and women who sought freedom but also those who were fearful of leaving. The dramatic oil paintings open in the stark white of the cotton fields. In the following tableaux, slaves are whipped, run through swamps, barely ahead of trackers and their dogs, and receive help from white abolitionists and Sojourner Truth. One powerful double-page spread shows a runaway hiding under floor boards, with slivers of light coming through. The end of the road finally comes in Michigan, where white snow on ground and trees serves as a beautiful counterpoint to the opening scene. Painter and poet previously collaborated on We Troubled the Waters (2009), and in this volume they have created a focused narrative that is troubling, violent and soul-stirring. In the title poem, the man says "ah may get tired / good Lawd / ah may may be free." Inspirational pairings of art and verse to read and recite in tribute to those who walked that perilous road. (Picture book/poetry. 12 & up)

Shange and Brown-s (We Troubled the Waters) book of poems about an escaping slave won-t be easy for some readers to get through. Whipping, pursuit by bloodhounds (-dogs-ll tear your/ muscle right off the bone-), and other horrors haunt the slave and his fellow escapees. Shange uses her formidable gifts to call up the voices of the slave and those he encounters; his words are raw and agonized in some places (-ah jus- can-t take it no more,- he says, -ah am not some animal to be worked from dawn to dusk/ livin on the entrails of hogs & such-) and unbearably poignant in others (-but he-s travelin alone,- he protests to another escapee about a man they see across the swamp at night, -can-t we help him a little bit-). The shadowed figures in Brown-s full-bleed spreads are often barely perceptible in the dark. In one striking painting, the slave hides below the floorboards as a dance is held above him; thin lines of golden light fall over his concealed body. When the journey ends, the calm of freedom seems unbelievable. A potent and memorable work. Ages 8-12. Agent: Russell & Volkening. (Jan.)

Gr 7 Up-Adopted as an infant, the only clues Maya holds to her Native identity are an unusually strong affinity with animalsparticularly cougarsand a birthmark in the shape of a cat's paw. Just days after her 16th birthday, Maya discovers that she is a Skin-Walker, an ancient being who can shift into animal shapes. Skin-Walkers supposedly became extinct centuries ago, but were recently resurrected by scientists in a secret genetic experiment. Now the teens whose Skin-Walker gene was activated are reverting back to animal nature. Could this experiment be the reason for the secrecy surrounding Salmon Creek? And is there a connection between the experiment and a string of mysterious local deaths? What other secrets are buried beneath the fanade of this tranquil Canadian community? Maya must quickly decide who she can trust because time is running out. The first volume (HarperCollins, 2011) in Kelley Armstrong's gripping trilogy will hook listeners, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them eagerly awaiting the next installment. The introduction of Skin-Walkers into the paranormal fiction genre is a welcome reprieve from the recent proliferation of vampire and werewolf stories. Narrator Jennifer Ikeda expertly embodies Maya, perfectly capturing the teen's outspoken, curious nature and wry humor. However, she is less convincing in voicing male characters. Overlong pauses between tracks are slightly distracting,. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver trilogy will especially like this one.— Alissa LeMerise, Oxford Public Library, MI