Miles' Song

by Alice McGill

Book Overview

It is 1851. Miles is a house slave on the Tilery Plantation, but when he is caught looking at an open book, he is sent to the breaking ground where he learns what it really means to be a slave.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439280702
• ISBN13: 9780439280709
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

A compelling and thought-provoking read.

Miles is a slave, but a slave who is in big trouble. He has looked in a book, one which fell off when he was cleaning in the big house, where he is a favored slave, with lighter skin and better food and clothing than the inferior field hands. And now he is in big trouble, and he is to be sent away to be "broken". What this means, and where he is to be sent, Miles has no idea, but he does know it will mean separation from the only mother he has ever remembered, the elderly slave who takes care of him. Miles grows up in his time away, and is not broken at all, maybe straightened instead. He comes out of his experience a new young man, with new priorities and a new understanding that things are not always as they seem. This is a compelling read, hard to put down.