Nightjohn Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Nightjohn Book

Nightjohn : Paperback : Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc : 9780440219361 : 0440219361 : 01 Oct 1996 : In this "searing picture of slavery"" (""Kirkus Reviews""),12-year-old slave Sarny risks terrible punishment as Nightjohn, an adult slave, teaches her how to read. An inspirational story, meticulously researched, and historically accurate."Read More

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  • Amazon Review

    Imagine being beaten for learning to read, shackled and whipped for learning a few letters of the alphabet. Now, imagine a man brave enough to risk torture in order to teach others how to read; his name is Nightjohn, and he sneaks into the slave camps at night to teach other slaves how to read and write. Celebrated author Gary Paulsen writes a searing meditation on why the ability to read and write is radical, empowering , and so necessary to our freedom. These skills threaten our oppressors because they allow us to communicate--to learn the real status of our slavery and to seek liberation. In this tightly written, painful, joyous little novel is a key that may unlock the power of reading for even the most reluctant teens.

  • Product Description

    "To know things, for us to know things, is bad for them. We get to wanting and when we get to wanting it's bad for them. They thinks we want what they got . . . . That's why they don't want us reading." --Nightjohn

    "I didn't know what letters was, not what they meant, but I thought it might be something I wanted to know. To learn." -- Sarny

    Sarny, a female slave at the Waller plantation, first sees Nightjohn when he is brought there with a rope around his neck, his body covered in scars.

    He had escaped north to freedom, but he came back--came back to teach reading. Knowing that the penalty for reading is dismemberment Nightjohn still retumed to slavery to teach others how to read. And twelve-year-old Sarny is willing to take the risk to learn.

    Set in the 1850s, Gary Paulsen's groundbreaking new novel is unlike anything else the award-winning author has written. It is a meticulously researched, historically accurate, and artistically crafted portrayal of a grim time in our nation's past, brought to light through the personal history of two unforgettable characters.

  • 0440219361
  • 9780440219361
  • Paulsen Gary
  • 1 February 2005
  • Laurel Leaf Library
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 112
  • Reissue
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