By: Carol Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Ekua Holmes
Published by: Candlewick Press, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6531-9
Plot Summary
Voice of Freedom tells about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer through a series of poems. She was born the youngest of 20 children to sharecroppers in Mississippi. The majority of her childhood was spent working in the cotton fields, only attending school December through March when she wasn't needed in the fields.
As adults, her siblings moved north, but she stayed in Mississippi to care for her mother following her father's death. She married Perry Hamer and adopted two daughters. She was tricked into sterilization surgery and never had biological children of her own.
She attended a meeting about voter registration and went with a group to register, but failed the test. She worked hard, and had to live on the run to protect her family, but went back and passed. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and became a leader of the movement, singing at rallies.
She was arrested and beaten for eating lunch at a whites-only counter on the way home from attending citizenship school in 1963. She ran for Congress and worked for the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party, attending several Democratic National Conventions as a representative.
Fannie Lou Hamer worked her entire adult life to ensure that African Americans were able to vote and represent their fellow citizens. Although she herself never won an election, she was instrumental in helping to get legislation passed and getting other black congresspeople elected. She also started a farm project to reduce hunger and helped to start a Head Start preschool program.
As adults, her siblings moved north, but she stayed in Mississippi to care for her mother following her father's death. She married Perry Hamer and adopted two daughters. She was tricked into sterilization surgery and never had biological children of her own.
She attended a meeting about voter registration and went with a group to register, but failed the test. She worked hard, and had to live on the run to protect her family, but went back and passed. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and became a leader of the movement, singing at rallies.
She was arrested and beaten for eating lunch at a whites-only counter on the way home from attending citizenship school in 1963. She ran for Congress and worked for the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party, attending several Democratic National Conventions as a representative.
Fannie Lou Hamer worked her entire adult life to ensure that African Americans were able to vote and represent their fellow citizens. Although she herself never won an election, she was instrumental in helping to get legislation passed and getting other black congresspeople elected. She also started a farm project to reduce hunger and helped to start a Head Start preschool program.
Critical Analysis
This book reads as though Fannie Lou Hamer is telling you a story (or actually singing you a song) all about her amazing life. The language is conversational and would lend itself well to an audiobook. The author also used diction in the poems, writing in the way that Hamer herself would have spoken.
The illustrations in the book are done in a collage-style manner, mimicking a quilt with many pieces combined together. They look as though many pieces of different fabric have been combined to create the people and places that were important to Hamer's life.
The cover shows Hamer singing and wearing a yellow dress and hat. In the background, there is a yellow batik print that reappears in several illustrations throughout the book, tying together the moments of Hamer's life. It appears in the illustration for Sunflower Couty, Mississippi, again in the background. It mirrors the sunflowers shown in the photo and is representative of her home of Sunflower County. The pattern reappears in the sky in the next picture for Delta Blues. Then it forms her mother's dress in Spoiled and is mirrored on the next page in her doll's dress, showing the connection between her mother and the sacrifices she made for her. The batik pattern is present in other colors towards the end of the book, representing how she changed and grew throughout her life.
In addition to the batik pattern, there are others that appear numerous times throughout the book, including one that looks like sheet music, a nod to Hamer's musical ability.
The picture that goes with the poem Delta Blues stands out for its composition. At first glance, it looks like people are trailing long white beards or hair behind them. Upon closer inspection, one sees that they are actually bags filled with cotton. This gives the reader a sense of the hard and unending job that working in the cotton fields was.
Much of the book does not have a traditional rhyme scheme, but there are times that it is used with great effect. Delta Blues, about Hamer's time picking cotton ends with the lines "Sharecropping was just slavery by another name. The same folks still had us, had us in chains." The use of the rhyme scheme drives home the point that nothing had really changed for Hamer and her family. The same poem also uses alliteration which enhances the sound of the poem. "Same sorry situation every season."
The illustrations in the book are done in a collage-style manner, mimicking a quilt with many pieces combined together. They look as though many pieces of different fabric have been combined to create the people and places that were important to Hamer's life.
The cover shows Hamer singing and wearing a yellow dress and hat. In the background, there is a yellow batik print that reappears in several illustrations throughout the book, tying together the moments of Hamer's life. It appears in the illustration for Sunflower Couty, Mississippi, again in the background. It mirrors the sunflowers shown in the photo and is representative of her home of Sunflower County. The pattern reappears in the sky in the next picture for Delta Blues. Then it forms her mother's dress in Spoiled and is mirrored on the next page in her doll's dress, showing the connection between her mother and the sacrifices she made for her. The batik pattern is present in other colors towards the end of the book, representing how she changed and grew throughout her life.
In addition to the batik pattern, there are others that appear numerous times throughout the book, including one that looks like sheet music, a nod to Hamer's musical ability.
The picture that goes with the poem Delta Blues stands out for its composition. At first glance, it looks like people are trailing long white beards or hair behind them. Upon closer inspection, one sees that they are actually bags filled with cotton. This gives the reader a sense of the hard and unending job that working in the cotton fields was.
Much of the book does not have a traditional rhyme scheme, but there are times that it is used with great effect. Delta Blues, about Hamer's time picking cotton ends with the lines "Sharecropping was just slavery by another name. The same folks still had us, had us in chains." The use of the rhyme scheme drives home the point that nothing had really changed for Hamer and her family. The same poem also uses alliteration which enhances the sound of the poem. "Same sorry situation every season."
Awards Won
2016- Caldecott Honor Book
2016- Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
2016- John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award Winner
Review Excerpt
From Kirkus Starred Reviews, published April 15, 2015
"Young readers who open this book with just a vague notion of who Fannie Lou Hamer was will wonder no more after absorbing this striking portrait of the singer and activist."
Connections
There is a video available by the same name that has narration and some animation to go along with the book. Watch it after reading the book aloud to allow students to hear the poems in other voices.
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