Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley » (1)

ANN RINALDI is an award-winning author best known for bringing history vividly to life. A self-made writer and newspaper columnist for twenty-one years, Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast. She lives with her husband in central New Jersey.

A fictional account of Phillis Wheatley, the slave who became America's first published black poet

The ALAN Review

Here is a beautifully written story true to the historical facts of the life of Phillis Wheatly, America's first black poet. Yeet its credibility rests in its imaginative treatment of Phillis Wheatley the human being, of how a young African slave might have learned to read and write American English in pre-Revolutionary-War Boston. The novel is written as Phillis Wheatley might have written a memoir covering the period in her life from ages seven through approximately twenty-one; that is, from Keziah's abduction from a Senegal rice field by her vengeful uncle's warriors to her interview with General George Washington as "free nigra woman" Phillis Wheatley. Especially moving is her description of the "middle passage" between Senegal and Boston on the slave ship Phillis. Complementing a study of Phillis Wheatley's poetry might be her running commentary on the significance of writing and on her writing process. Her easy conversational style should make historical detail pleasantly consumable to young readers studying the period. In fact, Ann Rinaldi's fascinating "Author's Note" discusses the interplay of fact and fiction in the story. This book has strong interdisciplinary potential. It was much enjoyed and is highly recommended.