This month we read about Addie, a slave who escapes with her mom and runs to the north to be free. Cate was so enthralled by this story. She had never heard of slavery before and had a hard time understanding why people would treat other people so cruelly. We were able to discuss not only slavery but what it means to be free. In the story Addie's mom tells her that no matter what happens to us we are always free on the inside. I was very impressed by these books (we read a few of them in this series) and thought that they told the story of slavery and then the hardships pf "freedom" very well. For our club Adrienne brought some cotton that the girls had to pick the seeds out of. This gave them an idea of what Addie's job would have been like. It was harder than it lookedand the girls decided they did not want to be slaves! She also had rag dolls that needed mending, a job that Addie's mom had on the plantation, so the girls learned how to mend and then were able to sew their dolls a dress. A lot of sewing for some of the girls but they turned out really cute.
