A first-person narrative tells the story of one family's journey via passenger train from North Carolina to New York City as part of the Great Migration. Young Ruth Ellen travels with her parents in the "colored car," watching out the window as they pass fields of migrant laborers living the sort of lives she and her family are escaping. As she travels, she also reads a book her teacher gave her just before they left, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Cline-Ransome's skillful writing draws subtle comparisons between Douglass's escape on the Underground Railroad and the journey north taken by African Americans generations later. Ruth Ellen's observations and the conductor's announcement of stops along the way charts the family's progress to a place that will offer only a little bit more freedom but much more opportunity for the family. The watercolor illustrations give a strong sense of the time period, as well as the characters of the people on the train in this distinctive look at the Great Migration. (Ages 6-9)

A window into a child's experience of the Great Migration from the award-winning creators of Before She Was Harriet and Finding Langston.

Climbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North-- one she can't begin to imagine. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.

Each leg of the trip brings new revelations as scenes out the window of folks working in fields give way to the Delaware River, the curtain that separates the colored car is removed, and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity the family hopes to find come into view. As they travel, Ruth Ellen reads from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, reflecting on how her journey mirrors her own-- until finally the train arrives at its last stop, New York's Penn Station, and the family heads out into a night filled with bright lights, glimmering stars, and new possiblity.

James Ransome's mixed-media illustrations are full of bold color and texture, bringing Ruth Ellen's journey to life, from sprawling cotton fields to cramped train cars, the wary glances of other passengers and the dark forest through which Frederick Douglass traveled towards freedom. Overground Railroad is, as Lesa notes, a story "of people who were running from and running to at the same time," and it's a story that will stay with readers long after the final pages.


An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year!
Named a Best Picture Book by the African American Children's Book Project
A Booklist Editor's Choice