PAST PRESENT with Lesa Cline-Ransome FREEDOM TO READ
Reading and writing are our favorite things to do — same for Newbery Honor author Lesa Cline-Ransome. So, imagine if it were against the law to read a book and you could go to jail for writing a story. You might think that's impossible, but it's a part of America's history that Lesa explores in this episode of Past Present through her non-fiction picture book, FREEDOM TO READ: The Story of Teacher Mary Peake and One Mighty Oak Tree, illustrated by ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award-winner James Ransome. Watch to learn how one brave woman risked it all to give Black children in Virginia the gift of education.
About the Book
“A thoughtful double portrait that reaches forward and back.”
—Publishers Weekly ⭐️
From Newbery Honor author Lesa Cline-Ransome and ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award recipient James Ransome, this “important picture book biography” (School Library Journal, starred review) tells the story of Mary Peake, a courageous teacher who started a secret school for Black children.
So many found sanctuary in Mary’s secret schoolhouse. They found freedom in letters. In Mary’s teaching, they found a refuge.
Mary Peake was born free in 1823 in Norfolk, Virginia, and from a young age she hungered for learning. Mary attended a colored school in her youth, but when Virginia lawmakers outlawed education for colored students, both enslaved and free, the schools had to close their doors. Mary wanted nothing more than to share the gift of education, so she opened up her home as a secret school, risking punishment in order to teach.
When the Civil War broke out, Mary and her community found refuge in a Union camp, and Mary set up a new schoolhouse under the branches of a proud oak tree. Shoulder to shoulder, students of all ages gathered to hear Mary teach.
Mary’s crusade for education became a model for one of the first historically black colleges, Hampton University. Her story is a celebration of one woman’s sacrifices for the freedom to read.
ABOUT Lesa Cline-Ransome
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the author of numerous nonfiction and historical fiction titles for picture book, chapter book, middle grade, and young adult readers. Her One Big Open Sky was both a Coretta Scott King Honor book and a Newbery Honor book. Her picture books include Fighting with Love: The Legacy of John Lewis, Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams, and The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne. Her verse biography of Harriet Tubman, Before She Was Harriet, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Honor, Christopher Award, and Coretta Scott King Honor for Illustration. Her debut middle grade novel, Finding Langston, won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and received the Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor. She lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband and frequent collaborator, James Ransome, and their family.
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