I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865

by Joyce Hansen

Book Overview

Joyce Hansen's Coretta Scott King Honor Book I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly is now back in print with a gorgeous new package! In this Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Patsy, an orphaned slave with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590849131
• ISBN13: 9780590849135
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.4"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

My favorite of all the "Dear America " series💖💖💖

Patsy feels like a real person spilling thier uncensored thoughts and feelings to a the only one she can in a world that values her less the livestock. The artwork is gorgeous I always did like the old Dear America portrait paintings on the cover

No wonder this book is named a Coretta Scott King Honor book!

I ordered this because I was curious to see if this book is fantastic as Coretta Scott King named it to be. That and I'm in the middle of collecting this magnificent and amazing book series. I was holding on to Patsy and silently encouraging her to share her secret of reading and writing when I was reading the book. I love this as it is now one of my new favorites along with A Picture of Freedom and Standing In The Light.

"I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly" report by cara

The book I read was called "I thought My Soul Would rise and fly the diary of patsy, a freed girl" this book is about 12 year old patsy. One day the yankees told her that all the slaves were free, so ever since then she has been thinking of a last name. People made fun of Patsy because of her disibility with her one leg because it is smaller then the other so is causes her to limp. Patsy lives on a plantation called Davis Hall. People think that she is stupid and dim-witted but she is very smart not only did she teach herself how to read and write, but she tought other people on the plantation too. Lots of people left the plantation to go find their family, Patsy was sad because she did have a a family that she knew of to find. I learned from this book that you should not judge someone by the way they look or the color of their skin because we are all the same inside. This is a great book so if i was you i would read it too.

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly is a book by Joyce Hansen. It is a diary of a young girl named Patsy who became free from slavery. It takes place in the South of the Untied States after the Civil War ended. I think that it is a good book because it helps you understand how difficult it was for blacks when the were first freed. This book helps you understand what it was like for the blacks when they were first freed because it gives examples on how hard it was. The blacks lived on a plantation and when they were freed they signed a contract that was followed by only one side. The owners of the plantation did not fallow the contract and treated them like they were still salves. The contract said that they would get land and and be taught by teachers but they weren't. They said a teacher was going to be sent on a certain day so the plantation set up a school room where the teacher would teach and until they got a teacher Pasty would teach them how to write their A,B,C 's. The day that the teacher was suppose to arrive would come an there wouldn't be any teacher. They had finally found a white teacher and she didn't had any where to live. If she were to live with a white family and teach the blacks that white family would burn down the house. They had a hard time finding an educated black to teach them. After this people started to leave the plantation and went to the shore because the government said they were selling land. They were warned that the government would take the land away from them but they left the plantation anyway. They had been there for a few years and the government decided to change it back around and give the land back to the plantations. Mistress would not sell them land either. Eventually Patsy changed her name and went to school and when she got older she came back to the plantation an tough the young kids more than they know more. I that this book was very educational because it taught what it was like to live when the slaves were freed. Some of the plantation owners treated their workers like they were still slaves after they were free. It seamed hard for Patsy when people's father or mother were coming to find the rest of their family and no one came for Patsy. Altho Patsy seamed happy with her live because she taught herself how to read and write and then tough people on the plantation.

It's not just the plot...

This is a beautiful book for many reasons, all of which are more complex than the basic plot. The overall theme of the story is huge: what it means - for anyone - to be free. Historically, Patsy's tale explains that once the Civil War was over, slaves didn't necessarily just walk off the plantations; they didn't always know where to go or what to do. Next, literacy is essential to and cherished by Patsy. We modern readers take it for granted that we know how to read yet it was illegal for slaves. Also, how we are given or choose our names connects with the book's theme of freedom. Patsy wants no part of her name to be associated with the misery of the Davis Plantation, so she ponders throughout the book what a suitable replacement will be. She is, after all, free to do that. Other reviewers have complained about lack of action, or a slow plot. I recommend thinking of the action as being cerebral, and in that regard it is action-packed. Joyce Hansen wrote a beautiful book.

A peek into the life of a just-freed girl.

Now that the Civil War is over, twelve-year-old Patsy, a slave girl, is finally free. But her life has changed little. She still lives and works on her former owners' plantation in South Carolina. She is still considered inferior to white people. And she still hasn't gotten a chance to see the world beyond where she grew up. But Patsy has one thing that nearly all former slaves don't have: the ability to read and write. And so she writes in her diary, which makes up this book, of her experiences in the months following the end of the war as she teaches others and struggles with the injustices the former slaves must face. An excellant addition to the Dear America series, and a good companion to one of the other books in the series, A Picture of Freedom, which is about a slave girl right before the Civil War. You can compare the two to see what changed in six years.

For Patsy, slavery is over, but the scars remain............

A slave all her life, twelve year old Patsy is suddenly free. But freedom is not what she expected it would be. Patsy still must work long hours. The only difference is that now, she gets paid for her hard work. Patsy wants to leave the confines of the plantation. But, having secretly learned to read and write, Patsy teaches the children of Davis Hall Plantation. Patsy feels that on the plantation she can never truly by free. An award winning author brings the Reconstruction era to life through the diary of Patsy, a freed girl who has great dreams for a better life.