To be taken away from home against your will must be devastating.  Ajeemah and his Son, by James Berry, is a fiction book which gives a realistic look at the issue of slavery.  The setting is Africa.

        This book is about a man named Ajeemah and his six children.  At a marriage celebration, Ajeemah and his oldest son, Atu, get stolen and taken into slavery.  A man named Mr. Fairworthy buys Ajeemah, taking him away from his son.  While Ajeemah is working for Mr. Fairworthy, he talks to the other slaves about freedom. “What of this pain and torture, this captivity, giving his life to Mr. Fairworthy?”

      Atu says to his father, “ We’ve both fallen into hell!”  This is my favorite quote because I can picture Atu saying that to his father and  his words relate emotionally to the reader.

    If I had to rate Ajeemah and his Son on a scale of 1 to 10, it would be an 8 because this book shows so much emotion and gives the reader a true picture of how about slavery was back then.

Submitted by: Aaron