Helpful Score: 6
Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for TeensReadToo.com
Laurie Halse Anderson tells the amazing story of a slave girl during the American Revolution.
Isabel is actually supposed to be free, since that's what her deceased owner willed, but a greedy nephew takes it upon himself to keep Isabel and her younger sister, Ruth, enslaved for his own profit. With no parents, and no one to care about their fate, the girls are shipped off to New York to live with new owners.
Aside from Isabel's plight, this book also follows the progress of the war from the standpoint of both loyalists and rebels. Readers have glimpses of the wealthy, the working class, the soldiers, and the slaves -- all while their eyes are riveted to the story of one lonely girl.
Anderson develops a realistic setting and offers up details that serve to enrich this tale and keep readers interested. From a trip to the stocks to a hanging, we see the gruesome, and from heroic acts to cowardice, we see people at their most extreme.
Anderson allows enough filtering and distance for comfortable reading, but expect no holds barred from this accurate author. The times were not pretty, despite the burgeoning of a new America. The writer neither exaggerates nor shields. She simply tells her tale, and it is most definitely one worth reading.
Laurie Halse Anderson tells the amazing story of a slave girl during the American Revolution.
Isabel is actually supposed to be free, since that's what her deceased owner willed, but a greedy nephew takes it upon himself to keep Isabel and her younger sister, Ruth, enslaved for his own profit. With no parents, and no one to care about their fate, the girls are shipped off to New York to live with new owners.
Aside from Isabel's plight, this book also follows the progress of the war from the standpoint of both loyalists and rebels. Readers have glimpses of the wealthy, the working class, the soldiers, and the slaves -- all while their eyes are riveted to the story of one lonely girl.
Anderson develops a realistic setting and offers up details that serve to enrich this tale and keep readers interested. From a trip to the stocks to a hanging, we see the gruesome, and from heroic acts to cowardice, we see people at their most extreme.
Anderson allows enough filtering and distance for comfortable reading, but expect no holds barred from this accurate author. The times were not pretty, despite the burgeoning of a new America. The writer neither exaggerates nor shields. She simply tells her tale, and it is most definitely one worth reading.
Helpful Score: 2
I have read every single book ever written by Laurie Halse Anderson... I was never a reader until I came across her books... I couldnt put this book down. It had me captivated from cover to cover... I literally didn't put the book down except for sleep until I was done. I suggest this book to everyone. I hope that the School Boards of the United States makes this a required reading in every school... I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did...
"Laurie Halse Andersons CHAINS is searing and had do many sparks I became lost in it. Isabel's harrowing journey into a nightmare realm of slavery, betrayal, loss, ans ultimately hope quite literally had me sobbing"-three time corretta Scott king Award winner and Michael L. Printz Award Winner, Angela Johnson
