Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully

Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman.

(This book was reviewed digitally.)Ī brilliant composer’s legacy perpetuated, happily for today’s music lovers, by stalwart friendships.Ī memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon. The delicate watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations are lively, admirably capturing Schubert’s fervent spirit and historical details of time and place. This well-written, inspirational book might interest adults more than children, but youngsters studying Schubert’s piano pieces could also appreciate it children would benefit from hearing the master’s music after listening to or reading this title. By the time Schubert died at age 31 in 1828 (a year after the death of his idol, Ludwig van Beethoven, at whose funeral he’d been a torchbearer), he’d produced 1,000 musical works, including lieder-lyrical songs-some set to friends’ poems. These allies promoted Schubert’s vast accomplishments, enabling him to present impromptu concerts from which he earned a stellar reputation and ardent admirers, though no income he gave only one paid public concert during his lifetime.

However, friends encouraged Schubert to follow his passion, and, in early adulthood, he joined them in pursuing a life devoted to the arts. His father discouraged his musical ambition, citing its risky financial future. Narrated by “we,” in the voice of his (mostly) unnamed, devoted friends, this lighthearted, informative biography discusses the brief life and career of the quiet Viennese prodigy.

Franz Schubert, dubbed “Our Little Mushroom” by friends because he was small and rotund, adored music from childhood.

Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully