Book Review: Freewater
Nov. 17th, 2023 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerNot long after the 2023 Newbery list first came out, I chatted with our former children’s librarian about the medal winner, Amina Luqman-Dawson’s Freewater. She commented, “When I first saw that the winner was yet another book about slavery, I thought, ‘Do we really need another book about Black suffering? Why can’t we have more books about Black joy?’ But then I read it, and it’s a good egg.”
As you can imagine, this description made me curious. The book starts with young Homer and Ada losing their way as they escape a plantation. Instead of heading north, they find themselves stumbling deeper into a swamp… where they meet a mysterious bow-and-arrow-wielding guide who leads them to a secret swamp village called Freewater, which has treetop platforms attached to each other by rope pathways called sky bridges. Oh my God.
So, yes, absolutely this book is engaging with the legacy of slavery, but it’s also going to push a lot of your Robin Hood buttons, including a mysterious Robin Hoodish figure (Suleman) who robs the rich (plantations) to feed the poor (Freewater residents). It’s not really a retelling - there’s a Robin Hood figure but no Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, Sheriff of Nottingham etc - but it has vibes. Lots of fun.
As you can imagine, this description made me curious. The book starts with young Homer and Ada losing their way as they escape a plantation. Instead of heading north, they find themselves stumbling deeper into a swamp… where they meet a mysterious bow-and-arrow-wielding guide who leads them to a secret swamp village called Freewater, which has treetop platforms attached to each other by rope pathways called sky bridges. Oh my God.
So, yes, absolutely this book is engaging with the legacy of slavery, but it’s also going to push a lot of your Robin Hood buttons, including a mysterious Robin Hoodish figure (Suleman) who robs the rich (plantations) to feed the poor (Freewater residents). It’s not really a retelling - there’s a Robin Hood figure but no Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, Sheriff of Nottingham etc - but it has vibes. Lots of fun.
