Unspoken

Author: Henry Cole
Publication Date: 2012
Type of Book: Wordless Picture Book

This wordless picture book tells the story of a young girl who lives during the time of slavery. She lives and works on her families farm. She is spooked one day when she sees someone in the stacks of corn stalks in the barn. She doesn't tell anyone that she saw something but she keeps going back to get a better look. During dinner she stashes some of the food in a napkin and brings it to the barn and leaves it outside of the cornstalks in hopes that the person hiding would eat it. One day she is listening in to the adults in the room talking about an escaped slave. The little girl knows that the person hiding in her families barn is the slave but she doesn't turn them in. When she goes back out to the barn later that night she finds a doll outside of the cornstalks were she was leaving food for the stranger each night and knows that they have moved to another hiding place.

The story told in this picture book was very interesting. I was personally surprised that the little girl didn't tell her family that she thought someone was living in their barn. I would have been so scared if I saw someone that I would have screamed. The girl is so kind and keeps bringing the stranger food because she knows that they must be hungry. I was also surprised that the little girl didn't turn the slave in for the reward. I felt that in the end since the little girl never turned the slave in, the reward she received was the doll given to her by the slave. This was a perfectly good reward for the young girl. I also really loved the illustrations in the story. The pictures all looked like they were sketched using a pencil. They were so detailed yet very simple all at the same time. It wasn't overwhelming looking at the images but they did a fantastic job in telling the story.

I would recommend this story to anyone learning about the underground railroad or slavery. This book doesn't tell you what to think because it is wordless, so students really have an opportunity to use what they know about this time to help interpret the book. This book should definitely be looked at more than once because there are so many conclusions you can come to each time you read it. I didn't even make the connection the first time that this little girl was participating in the underground railroad. Even though this is mentioned on the cover page, I didn't even think about it while reading the story the first time around.

Image References
http://www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Story-From-Underground-Railroad/dp/0545399971