Steamboat School

Week 2 Historical Fiction Picture Book 3:
Steamboat School
Written By: Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by: Ron Husband
Published: 2016

Beautiful. Everything about this book is just absolutely beautiful. It is brand spanking new, and I am very hopeful that it will receive countless awards and earn the place of honor on many people's bookshelves in their classroom libraries. This book is set in St. Louis, Missouri in 1847. It tells the story of a boy named James who is about to start school for the first time. Here's the twist, in 1847, a new law was passed that stated "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows: No person shall keep any school for the instruction of negroes or mulattoes, reading or writing, in this state. He and his sister Tassie had to make their way to the church basement each day to their windowless classroom. Where, according to their Reverend teacher, the knowledge they're gaining is the only light they need. 

Now I'm sure you're thinking... Hang on a second, where does the steamboat come into play? Well, unfortunately, their school gets shut down after a while and they are forced to disperse. Their clever teacher decided that to get around the no school for colored people law, he and his students would work together to refurbish and set up a school on an old steamboat ship. 

This book focuses a lot on the idea of being brave and what it means to be brave and what a brave act may look like. Steamboat School really challenged my perception of the word brave as well as how valuable the ability to read and write is. Back then people risked their lives in order to learn these skills and today a lot of people take them for granted.

I cannot wait to use this book in my classroom. It would be an excellent book to open up the year with so I can discuss with the students the importance of being brave with their learning each an every day and valuing all of the information and skills we learn because there may be people out there who are dying to learn what they are. I give this book a well deserved 5 stars.