Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper

Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper is one of those books that may not be easy to read, but should be read. The main character is Amari, stolen from her home in Africa after watching her parents and brother be murdered. She is taken to America in a slave ship. The conditions on the slave ship bring about the death of many of the other captives. When she arrives in America, she is bought by a plantation owner as a present for his sixteen year old son. Amari, who is fifteen at the time, learns how cruel life can be but manages to survive and become a strong person. After escaping with a white girl her age, who is an indentured slave, and the young son of one of the slaves on the plantation, the three manage to reach Fort Mose, a Spanish settlement in Florida that welcomes slaves and gives them freedom. The book is recommended for 9th grade and up because it has graphic details of how slaves were treated. The theme of the book is one of hope and being able to survive life's hardships. Of course, man's inhumanity to man is evident in the book. The setting of the book is pre-civil war when America was still a colony of England.