Sunday Ford (Children's Literature)
Henry Brown does not know how old he is. He is a slave, and slaves are not allowed to know their birthdays. When Henry is young, the master gives Henry to his son, separating him from his family. Henry dreams of being free as the birds are. As an adult, Henry meets a young woman named Nancy, whom he later marries and with whom he has three children. Once again Henry’s dreams are crushed as he watches Nancy and their children disappear from his life after being sold. At night, all Henry can think about are the carts carrying away his family that he loved so dearly. Desperately wanting to be free, he gets the brilliant idea to mail himself to freedom with the help of two friends. After a long, hard journey in a wooden box, Henry arrives in Philadelphia, where he celebrates his birthday--his first day of freedom--and acquires a middle name. He is now known as Henry “Box” Brown. Artist Kadir Nelson uses crosshatched pencil lines with layers of watercolor and oil paint to add visual strength to the text. Pictures fill the entire two-page layouts with exquisite detail, bringing this true story to life. 2007, Scholastic, $16.99. Ages 4 to 8.

TiUnna Langley (Children's Literature)
Henry Brown was born a slave. As a young boy when his master became ill and was on his death bed, Henry was refused his freedom and was separated from his mother. Growing into a young man after being separated from his family, Henry yearned to be as free as the birds. After marrying and starting a family, Henry once again was separated from his family and became heartbroken. The good work and good character Henry had always maintained did not keep his family together. Unfortunately, family separation was a very common practice during slavery. With the help of some good friends, Henry took control of his destiny and prevailed, acquiring his freedom through persistence and hope. Levine recounts this factual and brave story faithfully, and Nelson illustrates it beautifully with robust and luminous pictures that are worth more than a thousand words. The story offers a revealing truth by depicting how families were torn apart during slavery. It also reveals a wonderful spirit of friendship by showing how Henry’s friends--both white and black--helped him escape to freedom. Levine uses this true story from the Underground Railroad to teach and inspire readers of all ages. Henry’s story teaches us all never to give up on our dreams. 2007, Scholastic Press, $16.99. Ages 4 to 8.

Daniel Spencer (Children's Literature)
Ellen Levine does a wonderful job of delivering a message about this historical event. How would you feel if another man controlled your destiny and separated you from your family? This is true for Henry “Box” Brown, a slave during the late 19th century. Henry, a hard worker, gets sent away from his mother and siblings when his master becomes ill. Sent to work for his master’s son, Henry dislikes his new home. He is lonely until he meets a beautiful young lady named Nancy while she is in town shopping for her master. Henry and Nancy marry not long after their first meeting and start a family, giving birth to three children. While at work, Henry receives the horrendous news that his family has been sold and shipped away. Once again Henry feels lonesome without family or loved ones. Time passes unhurriedly. As he looks into the sky, Henry remembers watching the birds fly freely when he was a child. Henry has always wanted freedom badly because he knows that without it, he will never be able to experience stability and keep loved ones in his life. With the help of two friends, Henry ships himself to Philadelphia where he can be free. Kadir Nelson’s illustrations tie brilliantly to the text. Each illustration allows the reader to see distinctive emotions with each of the characters in the story. Nelson’s use of cross hatching and light-and-dark contrasts brings focus to certain characters and emotions throughout the book. This picture book is based on a true story of the Underground Railroad. 2007, Scholastic Press, $16.99. Ages 4 to 8.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Henry Brown, she begins, was not sure how old he was. Henry was a slave. And slaves were not allowed to know their birthdays. Kadir Nelson’s poignant paintings show a small boy sitting on a stool, his sad eyes inviting children to understand the pathos of his life. Other emotional vignettes let children understand Henry Box Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom during the Civil War. The final page shows him shedding his desolation as he climbs smiling from a box on his birthday, “March 30, 1849, his first day of freedom!” This picture book biography reaches down to younger audiences. 2007, Scholastic, $16.99. Ages 5 to 9.

Paula McMillen, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
This true story of one escaped slave, Henry Brown, is simply and movingly told by Ellen Levine, author of several critically acclaimed books about episodes of social injustice (e.g., A Fence Away from Freedom, Freedom’s Children, and Darkness over Denmark). When he was still a young boy, Henry was separated from his family at the whim of his master, and longed to be as free and happy as he imagined the birds were. As an adult, Henry once again lost his family when his wife and three children were sold off while he was at work. All the joy was gone from life and he was prepared to take desperate measures to escape. With the help of a local physician opposed to slavery, Henry was nailed into a wooden crate and shipped from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia--a grueling 27 hour journey--where he was released from the box and his slavery. Afterwards the story of Henry “Box” Brown’s daring escape was used to help raise money for abolitionist efforts. Levine’s narrative is richly enhanced by the masterful watercolor, oil, and pencil illustrations of Kadir Nelson, also a previous award recipient (e.g., Ellington was not a Street, and Thunder Rose). The full two-page spreads, often of small details, like the “THIS SIDE UP” label on the shipping crate, add visual power and immediacy to the text. A brief historical note about the Underground Railroad is provided at the end of the book along with a short bibliography for further reading. This is a very personal account of the injustice of slavery that will surely provoke curious students to learn more about the Underground Railroad, Henry Brown, and slavery in general. 2007, Scholastic Press, $16.99. Ages 6 to 10.

Frances Mann (Children's Literature)
Henry Brown is a slave who once lived on a plantation with the rest of his family. One day the master called Henry and his mother in to talk with him, and announced that he planned to sell Henry to another family. Despite being upset over being separated from his family, Henry went to live with the other master and did a good job. He met a pretty girl and married her; and they soon had a family of their own. Now working in the factory that his current master owns, Henry soon learns from another slave that his wife and children have been sold to another slave-owner. After mourning the loss of his family, Henry decides that he no longer wants to live his life as a slave, and hatches a smart plan to reach freedom. Based on a true story, this book provides an opportunity to discuss slavery and real-life people who were involved with and affected by it. Nelson’s illustrations could tell the story without any help from the words. The illustrations are large and are effective in drawing the reader into the story. He employs close-ups of the characters in order to help the reader make a better connection with the characters. You can literally feel what the characters are going through as a result of Nelson’s illustrations. This book is a must-have for classroom libraries. 2007, Scholastic Press/Scholastic Inc, $16.99. Ages 7 to 12.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2008)
Drawing from an actual historical account, Ellen Levine details some of the hardships and heartbreaks of slavery, and the creative resiliency of Henry “Box” Brown, a man who mailed himself to freedom. Levine’s account begins with the child Henry, who is cautioned by his master never to tell a lie when he gives Henry as a gift to his son. “Henry “didn’t say thank you. That would have been a lie.” Henry grows up and falls in love. Soon he and Nancy, his wife, have a family. When Nancy and his children are sold away, “Henry’s heart twisted in his chest.” He emerges from a period of despair determined to be master of his own fate, conceiving of the plan to mail himself to freedom. Henry succeeds with the help of an African American friend and a white abolitionist. There are questions that Levine’s narrative cannot answer because the answers are unknown, such as what happened to Henry’s wife and children, but the tragedy of slavery, and Henry’s dignity and self-determination, shine in both her words and Kadir Nelson’s stirring images. CCBC Category: Historical People, Places, and Events. 2007, Scholastic Press, 40 pages, $16.99. Ages 8-12.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 23))
Nelson’s powerful portraits add a majestic element to Levine’s history-based tale of Henry “Box” Brown, a slave who escaped by having himself mailed to freedom in a crate. Depicted as a solemn boy with an arresting gaze on the cover, Henry displays riveting presence in every successive scene, as he grows from child to adult, marries and is impelled to make his escape after seeing his beloved wife and children sold to slaveowners. Related in measured, sonorous prose that makes a perfect match for the art, this is a story of pride and ingenuity that will leave readers profoundly moved, especially those who may have been tantalized by the entry on Brown in Virginia Hamilton’s Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom (1993). (afterword, reading list) 2007, Scholastic, 40p, $16.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 8 to 10. Starred Review. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laurie Slagenwhite (Library Media Connection, August/September 2007)
This picture book biography of Henry "Box" Brown introduces Henry as a boy who doesn't know how old he is because "slaves weren't allowed to know their birthdays." At a young age he is separated from his family when he is given to his master's brother. As an adult he loses his family again when his wife and children are sold. Wishing for the freedom the birds have, he decides to escape to a place where there are no slaves: Philadelphia. With the help of abolitionists, he mails himself in a wooden box. An author's note gives more details, and Kadir Nelson's paintings, done with crosshatched pencil lines, watercolors, and oils, give Ellen Levine's simple text beautiful detail and much of its emotion. The weighty subject matter (including a scene where Henry uses oil of vitriol to burn his skin to the bone so that he won't have to work on the day of his escape) makes this title more suitable for upper elementary students. This is a fresh choice for introducing the topic of slavery in the classroom. Recommended. 2007, Scholastic, Inc, 40pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 8 up.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 2007 (Vol. 60, No. 8))
Among the stories of runaway slaves, the tale of Henry “Box” Brown’s successful 1849 flight from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia via packing crate is one of the more famous. Although it can be related in the quasi-folkloric tone of a trickster tale, Levine focuses on the poignant details of his earlier life—his forced separation from his mother and later from his wife and children—that make his ultimate escape a bittersweet triumph. Levine and Nelson’s collaboration is well suited to primary-grade listeners, from the plainspoken text (“‘Your wife and children were just sold at the slave market.’ ‘No!,’ cried Henry. Henry couldn’t move. Henry couldn’t think. Henry couldn’t work”) to the dramatic images (a larger than life double-page bleed of Brown’s mounting anxieties; cross-sections of his contortion in the wooden crate). Nelson’s mixed-media illustrations, with their cross-hatched pencil lines inspired by a nineteenth-century lithograph, often seem to more closely emulate crackled glazing; and although some male figures in their lengthy topcoats appear oddly truncated, the sober, fixed gaze of Brown as a boy and the steely dignity of Brown as a man are riveting indeed. No citations are offered for quotations, which are loosely paraphrased from Brown’s own account, but reference to the Brown narrative and that of equally famous escapee William Still are included following a brief author’s note. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Scholastic, 40p.; Reviewed from galleys, $16.99. Ages 5-9 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2007)
Levine recounts the history of slave Henry "Box" Brown, who is mailed in a wooden box to Philadelphia and freedom. The powerful tale is told through direct, simple language, and a note explains the story's historical basis. The pencil, watercolor, and oil paint illustrations resonate with beauty and sorrow. There is no sugarcoating; however, the conclusion is moving and satisfying. Category: Picture Books. 2007, Scholastic, 40pp, 16.99. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Tanya Tullos (The Lorgnette-Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 20, No. 1))
Henry Brown is born a slave. He is given away by his master. His wife and children are later sold away. He dreams of freedom all his life. Finally, he convinces friends to mail him in a wooden crate from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After his escape, he becomes one of the best-known runaway slaves on the Underground Railway, Henry “Box” Brown. While the story is an interesting one and a good addition to Civil War era tales about slavery, the glowing illustrations by Kadir Nelson are a true delight. The emotions and details are well portrayed. A several page spread with two men who are tired and want to roll over the box to sit on it is especially interesting as readers are the only ones who can “see” Henry in the box! Fiction, Highly Recommended. Grades 2 and up. 2007, Scholastic, Unpaged., $16.99. Ages 7 to 12.