Fiction Friday: Freedom Crossing

Today I am linking up with Amanda over at The Teaching Thief for Fiction Friday! 

Freedom Crossing is one of my favorite books we read in my 4th grade class.  Every year my class literally BEGS me to keep reading.  They LOVE it.  It fits in perfectly with our study of slavery and the Civil War so I always read it during that unit to integrate Reading and Social Studies.  

Here is a book summary from Scholastic:

Although she lives in the North, Laura's ties to the South and what it stands for are strong. And she is firm in her conviction that the Southern states have the right to maintain their own laws and beliefs, even those concerning slavery. But Laura will soon find out that she is alone in that belief in her very own family. After a lengthy stay with a beloved aunt in Virginia, she quickly discovers that her own home in western New York is a stop on the hated Underground Railroad. Worse, her own brother, Bert, and a childhood friend, have become conductors, helping slaves escape into Canada.

Even so, she will not waver from her belief that anyone helping a fugitive slave is breaking the law. That is until she meets Martin Paige, a 12-year-old runaway slave who would rather die than be sent back to the South and into bondage. Tension and intrigue illuminate the dim passages and secret hiding places throughout Margaret Goff Clark's page-turner. Themes of home, family, and friendship are woven with a story of courage and suspicion.

I highly recommend this book!