"In an extraordinary slave narrative recorded in 1798, Venture Smith remembers his capture in Guinea as a child... Smith’s original, first-person account, published in 1798, appears opposite from Nelson’s stirring poems, which are written in Venture’s voice and both intensify and comment on Smith’s experiences. ... Dancy’s blurry sepia background art…includes ink lines that evoke chains and ropes and then broken bonds. It’s surprising that this essential part of American biography and history isn’t more widely known. Suggest this as a crossover title to adults."
     —Booklist