The Listeners (Tales of Young Americans)

by Gloria Whelan (Author) Mike Benny (Illustrator)

The Listeners (Tales of Young Americans)
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Ella May lives on a plantation but she doesn't live in the great house. She is a slave. It's dark in the morning when Ella May heads to the fields to pick cotton. And it's sunset when she comes home. But her day isn't done, not yet. Ella May still has important work to do. She's got to listen.

Each night Ella May and her friends secretly listen outside the windows of their master's house. The children listen in the hopes of gleaning information about their fates and those of their loved ones. Who will be sold? Who will stay?

The lives of slaves depended on the inclinations of their owners. They had no control over their daily lives or futures. But they could dream. And when the promise of freedom appears on the horizon, the children are the first to hear it.

Gloria Whelan's other titles in the Tales of Young Americans series include Friend on Freedom River (Jefferson Cup honor book) and Mackinac Bridge: The Story of the Five-Mile Poem (2007 Michigan Notable Book). Ms. Whelan lives in Michigan.

Mike Benny's illustrations have appeared in Time, GQ, and The New Yorker magazines. His awards include three gold and two silver medals from the Society of Illustrators. He also illustrated America's White Table. Mike lives in Austin, Texas.

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Gloria Whelan
Gloria Whelan is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of many books for children and young adults. She won the National Book Award for young people's literature for her novel Homeless Bird. A versatile author of historical and contemporary fiction for children and young adults, as well as short stories and poetry for adults, Whelan is, according to Liz Rosenberg in the Chicago Tribune, "an accomplished, graceful, and intelligent writer." She lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and you can visit her at GloriaWhelan.com.

Nancy Carpenter is the acclaimed illustrator of Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt, Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine, Fannie in the Kitchen, and Loud Emily, among other books. Her works have garnered many honors, including two Christopher Awards and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at NancyCarpenter.website.
Classification
-
ISBN-13
9781585364190
Lexile Measure
630
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date
September 08, 2009
Series
Tales of Young Americans
BISAC categories
JUV011010 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JUV016140 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | United States - 19th Century
Library of Congress categories
History
African Americans
Slavery
1775-1865
Southern states
Listening
Cybils
Finalist 2009 - 2009

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