Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth

Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth

Author: Anne Rockwell

Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie

Publishing Company: Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright Date: 2000

36 pages

Nonfiction

        The story of Sojourner Truth is absolutely inspiring. While reading Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth I was able to learn all about Sojourner’s life through Anne Rockwell’s literature. Sojourner was born into slavery. Throughout her youth and young adult life she had several different owners. After a state law in New York was passed in 1827, Sojourner finally had hope of freedom. Her master promised her freedom if she worked one more year for him. So she did, and she worked hard for her freedom in that time. Due to an injury, her master told her that she would stay one more year. Knowing what he was asking was illegal, she left his farm taking her freedom she was promised. After several more heartaches, Sojourner found her way. Her tale is absolutely inspiring, and is told very well throughout this book.

I found the illustrations to be very interesting. They are not like most illustrations seen within children’s literature. These illustrations are instead are somewhat abstract with only the facial features showing great detail. I found these illustrations to be very unique in style. These illustrations are completed with very bold watercolors. These illustrations are only single page with the text placed on the opposite page.

I really enjoyed this text and Sojourner’s story. I feel that this book could be used within any upper level elementary classroom. I would not recommend this book for classes below second grade. With that being said, I would use this book for Black History Month. I believe that Sojourner has such a powerful story. It should be incorporated into the classroom. I would also incorporate this text within any unit pertaining to slavery. This text covers many different aspects of slavery and would be very beneficial as a complementary piece of text. One final way I saw that this book could be used within the classroom would be alongside instruction of timelines. One really interesting element found within this book is a timeline of events that occurred within Sojourner’s life. I would have students sort these events in order after reading the text as a class. I feel that this would give students a really meaningful, hands-on way to connect to the instruction of timeline.