Count the Stars Through the Cracks by Billie Hotaling

* * * Winner of an Ohio Arts Council Award for Fiction! * * *

Received highest marks from VOYA Magazine:
“This simple narrative is a treasure, packed with information and understanding The writing is unadorned, but, at the same time, beautiful and emotional.Excellent for sixth grade and up. This deserves consideration for Best Books.”

Here is the story of a fifteen-year-old boy and his ten-year-old sister who set out with their mother to escape from the plantation where they were born into slavery. Their escape is occasioned by the selling of their father to a slave holder farther south. During their journey, their mother dies, and Jute and his sister, Susu must fend for themselves as they transverse the Underground Railroad.

Their adventure is exciting, because at any moment they risk being captured and returned to slavery. Their lives are frequently in the hands of whites who were responsible for moving escaped slaves through a series of hiding places to final safety in Canada. During their journey, Susu breaks her leg. A doctor hides them until she can recover sufficiently to be moved to the house of a free black family. This family is unusual. The husband is building a mill out of a pattern book, and he employs Jute in that endeavor. The mother teaches Susu to read.

Jute is marked by a fierce pride, a desire to be free, and a desire to make his way in the world. His pride is the driving force behind their escape and the choices he makes on the passage. The $5.00 a month he earns building the mill is a source of considerable pride and satisfaction.

After months of waiting, Susu’s leg is healed and they take their carefully-saved money to Xenia to buy two railroad tickets to Canada. They find the town in turmoil, and they learn that the Civil War has started—they no longer have to run and hide

Billie Hotaling is a resident of Maine.