Back in elementary school, the Underground Railroad was a big topic in history class. We read books, watched documentaries and film/television adaptations all about it. When I saw another book about this historical event, I really wanted to jump back into reading it. It's an important story to tell, and an intriguing one at that.

This is a biography of one of the men who was a big part of the Underground Railway - if not the most important! William Still's story is crazy important and is one incredible one. I think this is a great way to introduce the tale, especially in a picture format. I feel like this would have helped me with reading the Underground Railway chapter book way back in my youth.

This Black History book is super important. I highly recommend it not only because of it's important historical context but the beautiful illustrations and great story telling that brought this book to life.

Five out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Publishing Company for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

William Still is another great example of leadership in the 19th century that readers will be excited to learn about! This book chronicles his life with gorgeously colored illustrations and great point of view in each illustration. This fresh story and perspective on the Underground Railroad is a must read for all. This book is perfect to expand on ideas of civic action, Black History, and general knowledge of American History.

We enjoy studying about important people in history, especially those lesser known heroes. This story was so wonderful and we loved learning about William Still and all that he did to help others!

I love books about unknown or less popular persons who made a difference. William Still had the foresight to document biographical information and descriptions of the people he helped process through his work with the Underground Railroad. It’s a fascinating read about a remarkable man that overcame so much to help others. Thank you to the Peachtree Publishing and netgalley for making this ARC available.

What a remarkable man and a remarkable read! William Still wasn't a name that I was familiar with and thanks to this book, his biography and contributions will be recognized. His determination and perseverance to do good by collecting stories of freedom seekers and to make the world better and fairer will inspire his young readers.
The author's End Note was especially powerful.

Important stories of American history and the stories of slavery and the importance of freedom. William Still and his freedom stories helped to reunite families torn by the injustice of slavery.

This is another outstanding picture book about black history and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s packed full of facts that can be used to educate older children without them becoming bored. The illustrations are vibrant and perfect for the story. I look forward to more from this author.

William Tate's life and work has found an ideal narrator/illustrator in the capable artistry of Don Tate. His balance of artwork and narrative in support of an important yet not currently well known figure in American history sets a standard for non-fiction. He has created a highly readable book that draws the reader in with the artwork and moves him or her through the difficulties faced by Still and his family. Tate sets out to improve the historical record of how the work of African Americans drove the Underground Railroad "full steam North" and he does so with a book that is a rewarding reading experience.

Tate's artwork has a quiet beauty--with a muted palette and subtle details he is able to fully realize scenes that support and expand the narrative. The layout of the text and images creates a tapestry of the small and large events that shaped William Still's life and his work. The quality of the artwork competes only with Tate's poetic turns of phrase and his writerly craft with short sentences. The clear writing will no doubt help readers process the difficult history and leave them in a place to explore their own thoughts. The timeline and bibliography are excellent places for readers to continue learning.

This book will be an excellent library and classroom asset.

I received an electronic ARC from Peachtree Publishing Company through NetGalley.
Biography of William Still for elementary level readers. Tate captures the world Still survived. He was born free but his parents and several siblings were runaway slaves. He sought to record each person who traveled through his home as part of the underground railroad as he felt strongly that their names should be recorded.
Glossary and timeline of his life along with further resources are included at the end of the book.

I am so glad to have learned this story. I feel like I've learned more history reading picture books for the past 2 1/2 years that I ever did in history classes. (And I had a really great teacher!) I absolutely love this movement in publishing to tell unknown or forgotten stories (or lesser-known stories) so that we can preserve this history. My students love to learn these true stories. This is beautifully told and illustrated and I cannot wait to share it with my students.

Fascinating picture book about a Black man who was born free, and went to work for an abolishinist society, before the Civil War, where he kept meeting escaped slaves, and started to keep a list of all of them and what their new non-slave names were, and a little bit of their history.

He kept this record for years, and used it, years later, to write about his experience, long after the Civil War was over.

Wonderful that such a book exists. Good to know about forgotten history.

Thanks to the Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I loved the illustrations in this book! The story was fantastic, and I'm honestly so disappointed that I never heard about William Still before reading this book. My only complaint is that there were a couple parts of the narration in which I felt the sequencing was a bit difficult to follow. Because of this, I feel it would be a wonderful curriculum piece and/or read-a-loud.

This is a beautifully illustrated, page turning account of the life of William Still, who escaped from slavery and later worked for the Anti-Slavery Society to help other freedom-seeking people. His home became a station on the Underground Railroad. His outstanding accomplishment was his book, which recorded information about the freedom-seekers he encountered, and the later work he did to help others. The intriguing endpapers reproduce excerpts as photographs from William Still’s journal in the front, while the back endpapers provide a transcription of the front endpapers. An informative author’s note, a timeline, and selected sources to follow up with make this book a truly satisfying reading experience. A much needed history. William Still’s records are an important contribution to our understanding of American history.

This picture book biography shares the little-known story of William Still, a man who was involved in the a variety of abolitionist activities, was a key player in the Underground Railroad, and kept written records to help reunite families. He was also a successful entrepreneur, and this brief book gives readers a glimpse into his historical context, family history, and personal accomplishments.

This is a great book for both children and adults. It is deeply inspiring, even while it is honest and direct about the horrors of slavery and racism, and because the author provides detailed context for events instead of assuming that a reader already understands them, this is a great option for young readers who are only just beginning to learn about slavery. The author's note also provides additional details for older readers, or for parents and children to read and discuss together.

There are only two things that I wish had been different. One is that even though the author mentions William Still's lost brothers several times, he never resolves the loose end regarding one of them. Even if the family never found out what happened to him, I wish that this came up in the book or in the author's note, just so that the open question would be resolved. Also, the prose is sometimes split up on the page in a way that I personally think isn't ideal for the rhythm. However, that is just my preference, and other readers may feel differently.

This is a great resource about a little-known historical figure, and it also raises important questions about which other black leaders history has forgotten. The author explains that even though the Underground Railroad was a joint, cooperative effort between black and white people, subsequent histories centralized white contributions without acknowledging many of the black heroes who pioneered in these efforts. This book can be a great launching point for more reading and discovery.

Fantastic! The information in this book is meaningful and rich. It tells the story in a way easy for kids and parents to read and talk about. I had learned about the underground railroad when i was young but this gave even more understand to it as well. William Still is inspirational and it is important to keep telling this story as well as it being relavent to issues today. I also loved the illustrations. They added extra interest.