Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom

Summary: Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom by Shane W. Evans is a historical fiction book intended for children in grades PreK-Fifth. This book is about a family who silently crawls underground. They run barefoot through dark woods, sleep beneath bushes, and take shelter in a kind stranger's home. This story shows the journey of a family who are heading for Freedom by way of the Underground Railroad.

Art Style: The illustrations, I believe, are what makes this book shine. They are dark, with the houses barely different from the night sky. They’re done with quick dark lines and rough pencil shading. In some images, you can hardly make out the escaping slaves in the darkness. The sprinkling of stars in many of the pictures, the frightening light of a slave catcher’s torch, or the soft glow of a lantern on a way station porch is often the only bright spot in the entire page.

Personal Thoughts: I believe that teaching difficult topics (like slavery or the holocaust) to children can be hard but are obviously necessary. Books like this do a nice job of remaining age appropriate but still telling a story.

Discussion Questions:

What roles do wealthy people play, or people of other races?

How might the mood of the story be changed if he had used different words or pictures?

Where are they heading? How? Why?

Motivational Activities:

One of the most striking features of Underground is its simple, yet effectively terse text. I would engage students in a discussion about how Evans manages to convey so much with so few words. This may naturally involve discussions and activities involving synonyms and deliberations about the different connotations certain synonyms have. I will encourage students to revisit some of their own writing and try revising their language with more precise, concise, and powerful words.

Evans employs both language and illustration to evoke a particular mood in Underground. I would ask the students “How might the mood of the story be changed if he had used different words or pictures?” For example, the book opens with just two words: “The darkness.” I would have students write a short story that specifically highlights a certain mood—or have them revisit a piece they have already begun and revise it to really emphasize the mood they want their audience to feel.

If you enjoyed this book, check out some other books written by Shane Evans!

Some Examples:

Chocolate Me!

Mixed Me

We March

Homemade Love

Resources:

Evans, S. (2015). Underground: Finding the light to freedom. New York: Square Fish/Roaring Brook Press.

Underground by Shane Evans. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/underground-by-shane-evans/