“knowin your way round the cotton field / is somethin’ these women know … but now it’s not the cotton on the ground / got their attention / this is the time to follow the north star …” Similar to We Troubled the Waters (Amistad, 2009), these volume pairs poems and paintings to illuminate a dimension of African American experience, in this case, individuals who escaped slavery (or in some cases, tried and failed). The poems, which follow a cohesive emotional arc, are sophisticated, and the paintings are haunting. Together they give a strong sense of the terror, danger, and resolve of those who dared to run. (Age 13 and older)