![]() ![]() “We see the road, but we don’t see all the way to where the ending is. ![]() When Ella May asks her daddy if that means their listening job is over, her daddy assures us that the listening is just begun: “Daddy says, ‘Moses is come! We’re going to be free like the children of Israel. There are happy moments in the book back at the slave cabins: the joy of family and food and community dancing to music heard from the master’s house, and the news that Abraham Lincoln has been elected to be President of the United States. Clearly slaves are not free, but young readers will not be burdened with nightmarish scenes sometimes common to slavery. In this way, the adults know what to expect and can plan for how to deal with it. Their most important work, however, begins at night, when they hide under their master’s window, listen for news and information, and run back home to report it. Young Ella May and her friends, Bobby and Sue, pick cotton all day. Bayou, however, is too scary for young children The Listeners, which tells a story of what life was like for children under slavery, is quite suitable for children. ![]()
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