This is a transcript from the Booklovers Podcast about Underground Railroad books for children.

Laura: [00:00:00] Welcome to Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host, Laura. And today, Amy from the New Richmond Branch joins me. We’re going to be sharing some children’s books related to the Underground Railroad.

Okay, Amy, take it away! I think you’re going to talk picture books?

Underground Railroad books for children

What Was the Underground Railroad by Yona Zeldis McDonough

What Was the Underground Railroad

Amy: [00:00:33] Picture books and some non-fiction. So, the first book I’m going to talk about is What Was the Underground Railroad by Yona Zeldis McDonough. It’s part of the What Was and Who Was series that is really popular right now. It’s a basic introduction to the Underground Railroad.

And because people began to work together to free the slaves, that’s where we get the term Underground Railroad. There wasn’t an Underground Railroad, like a subway, going through cities and towns. It was a whole network of people, abolitionists who are the people that believe that slaves should not be slaves and that everybody should be free.  This book talks about how it all worked. How the homes were called stations and that the people, the abolitionists who were working to free the slaves, were station masters or conductors or operators, and that the routes were lines.

So, it did talk like it was a true railroad, but there wasn’t actually a railroad, and that escaping slaves were cargo or passengers. It was basically in code so that if they were talking and somebody overheard, nobody would be suspicious. It talks about the importance of the Ohio River. This is why we’re focusing on it here in Clermont County. We have quite a few sites that were involved in the Underground Railroad.

There are quite a few abolitionists that were here working to free slaves. The Ohio river itself was the border between the slave states, Kentucky and further South, and the North and freedom.

There a few other books in the What Was, Who Was series that are also tied to the Underground Railroad. One is Who Was Harriet Tubman. And then the other one is Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She actually lived in Cincinnati. And she also had passed through Clermont County. So, they were both very involved in the Underground Railroad.

Available as:

* Book* eBook via Overdrive/Libby* Audiobook via Overdrive/Libby

The Underground Railroad: an Interactive History Adventure by Allison Lassieur

The Underground Railroad: an Interactive History Adventure

And then, the next book I’m going to talk about is a really cool nonfiction. It’s The Underground Railroad: an Interactive History Adventure by Allison Lassieur.

Laura: [00:03:46] That sounds fun.

Amy: [00:03:46] It’s very cool because it’s a choose your own adventure nonfiction book. You can choose a path of beingan Underground Railroad abolitionist conductor. Or you can choose the path to be the runaway slave, or you could choose the path to be a slave catcher.

There are 37 choices that you get to make.