‘Freewater’ A Tale Of Escaped Enslaved People, Wins Newbery Medal

Amina Luqman-Dawson’s book “Freewater” won the John Newbery Medal for Children’s Literature on Monday. The award is considered the highest honor for a children’s book in the United States.

Set in the early 1800s, the novel follows 12-year-old Homer, his sister and other members of a community of Black people who had escaped slavery to settle in the Great Dismal Swamp. The village they create is called Freewater.

“I’m so extraordinarily surprised and shocked,” Luqman-Dawson told KidsPost after the announcement. “The best feeling is that hopefully ‘Freewater’ will give teachers, parents and especially kids a new way of talking about history, [about] the terrible hardship of slavery — and also the resistance to it, the strength and love of Black people back then.”

The book grew out of the author’s research into how real-life escapees were able to survive in this dangerous Southern swamp, Luqman-Dawson said in an interview in February. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. “Freewater” also received the Coretta Scott King Award, which honors books by Black authors that show “appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.”