This month my book club read Copper Sun. An amazing story about a girl in Africa who had never laid eyes on a white person until the day they came into her village and killed her entire family and took her and the other young and healthy men and women in her village away in irons. Marched them to the coast where they were branded like cattle sold to slavers and shipped to the colonies. This girl Amari has to learn how to be a slave and what that word even means. Her body is no longer her own, and at the age of 15 she is abused by many. This story should be read by everyone. It gives an amazing depiction of one girls life from freedom to captivity and slavery to her escape and the trials she must face even seeking the freedom she craves. Sharon Draper put this story together so well.. the emotions, how the people of that time Black and White, felt. The horrors of what slaves went through and the sadness they endured. And not only did she bring us into the life of a slave she also gave us an education on indentured servitude. Amari was sold to a rich plantation owner who also that day bought an indentured servant about her age. This girl sold her services to pay off her families debt. Most people didn't know anything about indentured servants. They were just as abused as the slaves only thing is that they could become part of society after a time because they were white. But the indentured servants indenture could be sold to anyone. Essentially if they made their masters angry the master could sell them to whore houses or other horrible sickening lives. I didn't give many details about this book on purpose. I want people to read it. It was an unbelievably fast read. I hated putting it down. The story was fast paced, it never bogged down. This was not a book I would pick up on my own. But I'm so glad I read it and recommend it for ages 16 and older. Mostly giving this age rating because Amari is abused, severely beaten, and other emotionally gut wrenching, but necessary scenes that are needed to tell this story and for it to have the impact it was meant to have. If you have read it I would love to hear your comments and if you haven't you really should then let me know what you thought. Until next time..
