List $26.00

Written by Paula Fox - Performed by Peter MacNicol - Unabridged Fiction - 4 CASSETTES - 4 hours

Publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell (July 1996)

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

RECEIVED THE COVETED 'AUDIOFILE EARPHONES AWARD' (March 1997) FOR EXCEPTIONAL NARRATIVE VOICE AND STYLE, VOCAL CHARACTERIZATIONS, APPROPRIATENESS FOR AUDIO FORMAT AND ENHANCEMENT OF THE TEXT!

Awarded the John Newberry Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Snatched from the docks of New Orleans, thirteen-year-old Jessie is thrown aboard a slave ship where he must play his fife so that captured slaves will "dance," to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable for their owners' use. Jessie is sickened as he witnesses the horrible practices of the slave trade. He wonders, can the cruelty to his fellow human beings be stopped? "A story that movingly and realistically presents one of the most gruesome chapters of history, with all the violence, inhuman conditions, and bestial aspects of human nature---exposed but never exploited in Fox's graphic, documentary of prose." --Booklist (starred review)