• Reading age: 5 to 9

See below for English description.

Henri ne connaît pas son âge, car les esclaves ne célèbrent pas leur anniversaire. Lorsque sa famille est vendue, il décide de tout risquer pour ce qu'il croit être juste : le droit d'être libre. Henri s'enfuit. Recroquevillé dans une caisse, il entreprend un long voyage vers la liberté. Il arrive à destination un peu comme une lettre à la poste. Lorsque le couvercle de la caisse s'ouvre, la vie d'Henri Brown commence vraiment. Il est libre.

Henry Brown doesn't know how old he is. Nobody keeps records of slaves' birthdays. All the time he dreams about freedom, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse. When Henry grows up and marries, he is again devastated when his family is sold at the slave market. Then one day, as he lifts a crate at the warehouse, he knows exactly what he must do: He will mail himself to the North. After an arduous journey in the crate, Henry finally has a birthday - his first day of freedom.

Original Title: Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story From The Underground Railway

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Kadir Nelson’s award-winning books include Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange, which won the Coretta Scott King Award and was an ALA Notable Children’s Book; and Just the Two of Us by Will Smith, which received an NAACP Image Award. Mr. Nelson lives in San Diego, California, with his wife and two daughters.

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