Chains

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson

CHAINS by

Category

: Historical

Age Recommendation:

Grades 6+

Release Date: 10/21/08

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Reviewed by:

Rating:

5 Stars

Laurie Halse Anderson tells the amazing story of a slave girl during

the American Revolution.

Isabel is actually supposed to be free, since

that's what her deceased owner willed, but a greedy nephew takes it

upon himself to keep Isabel and her younger sister, Ruth, enslaved for his

own profit. With no parents, and no one

to care about their fate, the

girls are shipped off to New York to live with new owners.

Aside from Isabel's plight, this book also follows the progress of

the war from the standpoint of both loyalists and

rebels. Readers have

glimpses of the wealthy, the working class, the soldiers, and the

slaves -- all while their eyes

are riveted to the story of one lonely girl.

Anderson develops a realistic setting and offers up details that serve

to enrich this tale and keep readers interested.

From a trip to the

stocks to a hanging, we see the gruesome, and from heroic acts to

cowardice, we see people at

their most extreme.

Anderson allows enough filtering and distance for comfortable reading,

but expect no holds barred from this

accurate author. The times were not

pretty, despite the burgeoning of a new America. The writer neither

exaggerates

nor shields. She simply tells her tale, and it is most

definitely one worth reading.