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| Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule | 
| Author: Harriette Gillem Robinet
Creator: Wendell Minor
Publisher: Aladdin
Category: Book
List Price: $4.99
Buy New: $1.81
You Save: $3.18 (64%)
New (29) from $1.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 35272
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4
ISBN: 0689833172
EAN: 9780689833175
ASIN: 0689833172
Publication Date: February 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Winner of the 1999 Scott O'Dell AwardA Notable Children's Book in the Field of Social Studies Maybe nobody gave freedom, and nobody could take it away like they could take away a family farm. Maybe freedom was something you claimed for yourself.
Like other ex-slaves, Pascal and his older brother Gideon have been promised forty acres and maybe a mule. With the family of friends they have built along the way, they claim a place of their own. Green Gloryland is the most wonderful place on earth, their own family farm with a healthy cotton crop and plenty to eat. But the notorious night riders have plans to take it away, threatening to tear the beautiful freedom that the two boys are enjoying for the first time in their young lives. Coming alive in plain, vibrant language is this story of the Reconstruction, after the Civil War.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 40 acres and a LOT of cotton December 18, 2006
40 Acres and Maybe a Mule is a great book, and I really enjoyed it. It is a very heartfelt story about a boy that's 12 years old named Pascal. His brother, Gideon, about 16 years old, finally shows back up at the plantation after two years of being gone. He says the slaves have been freed. Pascal gets his 8 year old friend Nelly and tells her to pack up. They're going to leave to freedom. They leave their plantation and eventually end up in Georgia, where they get a land grant. They find their land and start a beatuiful home with the cotton crops flourishing. Despite the great wealth of cotton and their new home, they never get a mule. But more and more slaves are losing their homes. The book gives a great message of hope, belonging, and friendship as their family grows and Pascal learns the true meaning of freedom.
 Not a favorite of mine, but a good story to read July 13, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book. There were a few parts that were confusing and I had to go back and reread the chapter. This book did include historical information. The author detailed the Reconstruction period. This story was very suspenseful. I kept expecting something really bad to happen. There was sadness, but no great devastation along the way. I am not too sure that students in 6th-8th grade would enjoy reading this book. I would recommend this book to high school aged students.
 Excellent story September 21, 2003
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The event in this story happened in the early of the reconstruction period of South America. It was about Pascal, 12-year-old a young black slave, and his family reaching for their own land. Gideon,Pascal's brother who had left a plantation of a white master which he used to live with Pascal, came back to invite his younger brother and his orphaned friend Nelly to escape there with him. They were motivated to have their own land by a promise of "forty acres and maybe a mule" from the Bureau of Refugees. Along the way, hey searched for other friends to create a new family friends. Finally, they pick up an older man calling himself Mr. Freedman, and his granddaughter, Gladness t. Pascal and his new family have imagine any of it could ever come true. After a long, hard journey, they find most exciting of all, a promise to give the land. They got the land forty acres in Georgia, and planed many plants. However, their great dream no longer stayed, when its nearly harvest time, a government said that slaves must gave back their land.
This is a story of determination, hard work, create a new lives and family, of hope, peace, and love, in a cruelty society. "forty acres and maybe a mule" seemed to be their new life that they had dreamed and fight for it all their hard journey. I think the writer, Robinet, allow the reader to enter the world of slaves that there are many obstacles during the reconstruction period. Moreover, the society is cruelty and unfair for them because of racism. I'm very impressed in Pascal characteristic because he learns that he is a worthwhile person even though he has a weak physical. About Gideon, he learns that he is a man whether or not he has no land, so he should lives with dignity although he is a black. He believes that human should have the courage to strike for their own right in this society. He and others learn that freedom is about having dignity. They never discouraged for the obstacles. They made me to think to a real life that although the land can be taken, but freedom can't be taken away from them.
Excellent reconstrutionist tale August 4, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Through the eyes of Pascal, a young black slave, we perceive the beginnings of the Reconstruction period of the South. Motivated by a promise of "forty acres and maybe a mule" by Circular 13 from the Bureau of Refugees, Pascal's brother Gideon enlightens his family and friends of the Emancipation Proclamation and convinces his younger brother to leave the plantation with him. Along the way, they search for other missing members of their family, make new friends, and find enemies. Joy builds as their farm comes together a piece at a time. Just when its nearly harvest time, a ruling that says slaves must give back their land comes out. Will the City family lose everything they have gained?
Readers come away with a clear picture of the life that has been fled, the continued injustice of racism, and frustration at the threat of impending loss. The humor, resilience, and hope of freed slaves are uplifting. Period details and realistic dialect add credibility to the characters and authenticity to the tale. An author's note presents facts that the story is based on; Robinet challenges readers to think about today's injustices against people of all kinds. A bibliography for further reading is appended.
Often wars are portrayed in historical fiction, not the act of rebuilding in the aftermath. Robinet's novel is a welcome change, and would work very well for classes studying the Civil War or African-American History.
Excellent story of determination in Reconstruction South March 16, 2002
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm surprised to see very few reviews posted here for this excellent award-winning work of historical fiction for middle readers. This Scott O'Dell Award winner about African-American life in the South is in the same tradition as the renowned "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" books by Mildred Taylor.Here we get on an emotional roller-coaster ride as we follow the lives of three young ex-slaves during the early days of Reconstruction in 1865. Gideon returns from following General Sherman to his former plantation to retrieve his younger crippled brother, Pascal, and his orphaned friend Nelly. In their quest to find the "forty acres and maybe a mule" in Georgia, that had been promised by General Sherman, they befriend a grandfatherly carpenter, and his long-lost granddaughter, to create a new family. The harsh realities of unjust treatment by white nightriders, who are trying to force emancipated slaves to return to their plantations, are tempered by various friendly white people who help them find their forty acres, open a school for the children, register them to vote, who become neighbors, etc. This is a story of determination, hard work, rebuilding lives and families, of hope, peace, and love, in the face of discrimination and cruelty. A seldom recognized historical fact is woven into this well-researched tale: the party of Lincoln, the Republican Party, was the original party of Civil Rights. The impact of the death of Lincoln on these emancipated slaves that were given land is dramatically portrayed here. And the quick backpedaling of his successor, Andrew Johnson, becomes a painful reality for nearly 39,000 black landowners just months after he takes office. This book deserves a wider reading by upper elementary through middle school students and their teachers, especially when discussing the facts surrounding the impact of the Civil War and early Reconstruction efforts in the South.
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