ABSTRACT
Show Way has been touted as an excellent addition to any classroom library because it presents a story that will move many readers to explore their own family roots. It is written by notable and multiaward winning writer Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Hudson Talbott. This book spans the Woodson's family history from slavery to contemporary times. At the beginning of the book, Soonie's great grandmother, who is a slave, is positioned as a victim in the text. In the story Big Mama, an older female slave, takes on the responsibility of raising the young children who, like Soonie's great grandmother, arrive on the South Carolina plantation. While Talbott uses an illustration to show how difficult it must have been for Mathis May, Woodson uses words to show how she coped with being torn away from her parents. Like the character Ensler, Mathis May's husband appears in one illustration and is mentioned briefly.
