Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Derek Blanks,
Up the Learning Tree
Lee & Low Books, 2003.

Ages 6-10

In this moving story of simple heroism, a young slave and a brave teacher both take enormous risks in order to participate in something most readers take for granted: education.

It is hard for my children, who, like most of their peers, grumble about doing homework, to imagine a life so filled with injustice that a child risks losing his fingers if he is caught with a book. This is what makes the clever and determined young slave Henry Bell so admirable. “Before Pap got sold away,” Henry remembers, “he told me book learning would help us escape slavery…There must be something powerful in books, and I want to know what it is.”

The opportunistic Henry gets his chance when he is assigned to walk “Little Master Simon” to school. A leafy sycamore outside the classroom window affords Henry cover as he spies on the forbidden lessons and carves new words into the branches of his “learning tree.” When illness spreads through the area the following spring, Mistress keeps Simon home to avoid infection but sends Henry to collect and return her child’s completed lessons each day. This is when Henry gets to know Miss Hattie, a northern school teacher who “doesn’t believe in slavery or in keeping people ignorant.” Henry thrives, and Miss Hattie tells him “I’ve never had a student as determined to learn as you.” But the illicit act of a teacher educating a child on her own time is eventually discovered, and the pair must part.

Marcia Vaughan (Snap!, The Secret to Freedom) became inspired to write Up the Learning Tree while reading oral histories of former slaves, several of which are quoted at the back of the book. Successful photographer and first-time illustrator Derek Blanks’ rich oil paintings demonstrate a lush retreat from the stark, sun-baked cotton plantation in the green and leafy school grounds where Henry begins his education. Recognizing that Henry’s story could very well have happened and that real people took extraordinary risks in order to become literate will help children understand the true vileness of slavery and the freedom inherent in learning.

Abigail Sawyer
April 2011