Right now January's family is running away from the slave hunters. They can't bring January because they don't know where he is since he was caught and beat by the slave catchers.

I find this book to be very disturbing because there is so much detail about the things that happened. For example, when January was getting beat the book explains every whip and how the mark looked. It describes that when they hit him and it tore his skin so bad you could see his ribs. Then they would whip him the other way so his skin would stick up in squares. After they were done beating him they would rub salt and pepper on his back.

I can't believe that something like this could of really happened. And I'm glad that it isn't that way anymore. This book reminds me of the Surrender Tree. Both of the books tell a story about slavery and what happened after slaves in both Cuba and in America were freed.

Meghan