Review:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Bloomsbury, 2009.
(Age 11+) Highly recommended. The harrowing story of slavery in the
Americas is given full reign in
this tightly controlled story about Isobel, a young girl, who along
with her five year old sister, Ruth is sold onto another after the
death of her mistress. The girls had been told they would receive their
freedom, but the person to whom they are sold treats them with disdain
and coldness. The plight of young girls, slaves in a household, where
they are expected to be up before dawn and go to bed after everyone
else, is told in punishing detail. Living in New York, the fact that it
is 1770, adds a greater terror to their lives.
The American War of Independence is all around them, in their household
where the owners are loyal to the British, to the streets crammed full
of soldiers, to the shops, closed through fear of reprisal, to houses
being burnt to the ground, to the prisons where captured American
soldiers are starved and left to rot, their naked bodies thrown into
common graves. The air is full of war and spying and death, and Isobel
becomes a go between for several captured soldiers and their officers,
allowed to live in boarding houses.
It is a time of fear and retribution, and Isobel knows full well to
stay
out of her mistresses' way, but falls foul of her often enough to incur
dreadful punishment. This amazing story will thrill its readers, and
they will gain an awful insight into the role of slavery in the
foundation of the United States of America, and the personal lives of
girls taken from their parents and made to live lives of drudgery and
fear. Isobel's story will be continued in the sequel,
Forge.
Highly
recommended for upper primary and lower secondary readers.
Fran Knight
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