50books_poc | 5 - Aunt Harriet's Underground Railway in the Sky

Reading Jackie Huggins led to me to bell hooks (because Huggins interviewed her). bell hooks led me to Faith Ringgold. The only book by her in the local library system is *Aunt Harriet's Underground Railway in the Sky*, an illustrated children's book.

*Aunt Harriet's Underground Railway in the Sky* is the sequel to *Tar Beach*, which the library does not have. This actually made a difference, as there is a surprising amount of plot in a very few pages.

To give one example, at one point there is a vision of women in white floating in the sky. I was not sure where this came from until I read the notes at the end. When near death Harriet Tubman had a vision of flying to freedom with the aid of a circle of women in white.

I guess this is the kind of exposition you would add when reading the books to children, but it does make it slightly more complicated than most children's books.

Faith Ringgold is, of course, primarily an artist and the illustrations are what the book is really about.