The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman
The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman
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The Freedom Maze

Author: Delia Sherman

Narrator: Robin Miles

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/25/2012


Synopsis

Set against the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, The Freedom Maze explores both political and personal liberation, and how the two intertwine.

In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer at her grandmother’s old house in the Bayou. But the house has a maze Sophie can’t resist exploring once she finds it has a secretive and mischievious inhabitant.
When Sophie, bored and lonely, makes an impulsive wish, she slips back one hundred years into the past, to the year 1860. She hopes for a fantasy book adventure with herself as the heroine. Instead, she gets a real adventure in the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation in 1860, where she is mistaken for a slave. 
President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future. The Thirteen Amendment—abolishing and prohibiting slavery—will not be not passed until April 1864.

Muddy and bedraggled, Sophie obviously isn’t a young lady of good breeding. She must therefore be a slave. And she is.

“Multilayered, compassionate and thought-provoking, a timely read on the sesquicentennial of America’s Civil War.”—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

About The Author

Delia Sherman was born in Japan and raised in New York City, but spent vacations between her mother’s relatives in Texas and Louisiana and her father’s relatives in South Carolina. With a PhD in Renaissance Studies, she proceeded to teach until she realized she’d rather edit and write instead. But retaining her love of history, she has set novels and short stories for children and adults in many times and places. Her work has appeared most recently in the YA anthologies The Beastly Bride, Steampunk! and Teeth. Her New York Between novels for younger readers are Changeling and The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen. Delia still enjoys teaching writing workshops, most recently at the Hollins University Masters Degree Program in Children’s Literature. She lives in New York City, but travels at the drop of a hat.


Reviews

Originally posted on The Book Smugglers It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I realised The Freedom Maze was something special. I felt its impact from the very start: I had barely started it and already had problems falling asleep because I kept thinking about what was happening to the protago......more

Goodreads review by Tamora

In 1960 Sophie's wish unexpectedly results in her trip back in time to her family's plantation in 1860. Tanned dark by the summer sun, Sophie is mistaken for one of her family's mixed-blood children and put to work as a slave, first in the moderately gentler "Big House," then as a more harshly used......more

Goodreads review by Carly

Middle grade children's novel featuring time travel to the past. The book opens in New Orleans in 1960. The main character, Sophie, is 13 years old and adjusting to life after her parent's divorce. Her father has moved to NYC and her mother is now working and planning on returning to school (which s......more

Goodreads review by Shawn

Bailed at the 30% mark - the time travel back to the days of slavery part of the story, which was going to take up the rest of the novel, rubbed me the wrong way. I felt it was sugar-coated and ineptly done. This year I've read two stunning novels about slavery: Octavia Butler's Kindred, and Yaa Gya......more


Awards

  • Audie Awards