My Jim, by Nancy Rawles

My Jim, by Nancy Rawles, is a re-telling of the story of Jim, the runaway slave from Huckleberry Finn fame, told from the point of view of his wife, Sadie. The topic of the book is appropriate for middle school ages and up (12 years old and up I would say). You would need to be careful with this book, because it is written in the slave voice, with all of its differences to the English we speak today. A struggling reader would struggle to no end with this book, but students ready for a challenge would love it.

The book is filled to the brim with heartache, stories of struggle, abuse, and demoralization of slaves during the later years of slavery, and the hatred boiling in the hearts of white southern people after the emancipation. I could easily see this book being the back bone of a well done unit on slavery.

I will be doing my next post about the topic of slavery, how to approach it, how to teach it the way it should be taught, and some good resources to use when teaching it. Keep the book My Jim in mind, it's a great story.