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Book Review of I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl (Dear America)

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl (Dear America)
reviewed on + 5 more book reviews


Dear America is a great series all together. It's a series of stand alone books written in a Diary style from the perspective of a young (usually in her early teens) girl living in a certain period of history. Each girl has her own personality and thoughts, and even though they themselves are fiction, the events that take place are 100% real. This series is a really great one if you want a child or teenager to learn more about history when they don't want to read a musty old textbook ^_~

This book in particular is about a girl named Pasty, who is a freed slave living in America in 1865. Her story is a heartbreaking yet hopeful one, written in the perspective of our charming heroine.

Here's a little snippet of the book:

"Dear Friend,
The children were so happy to see me this morning. They ran over when I reached the arbor. I felt as though my soul would rise and fly, as our song says.
We walked together to the spinning house. I will call it a schoolroom, even though it's not a real schoolroom, and I am not a real teacher. I gave each older child a paper with all of the letters and an easy word to match each letter, just the way Annie and Charles's teacher used to do...
One of the old women said to me, "You such a quiet little thing, but you sho' know how to teach them letters"
I surprised myself when I said thank you without stammering"

There you go!