BookTalk: Follow the Drinking Gourd

Winter, J. (1988).  Follow the drinking gourd. New York: Dragonfly Books.

                   

“For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom…If you follow the drinking gourd.”  A gourd is a squash with a long, skinny neck and a round bottom. A drinking gourd is made by trimming the top of the round section and then scooping out the insides to make a dipper for drinking water.  

You might be asking, “What does a gourd have to do with freedom?”  You will find the answer in the pages of a historical fiction story called Following the Drinking Gourd.  The words “drinking gourd” were part of a folk song sung by slaves during the Civil War. They used these words to mean the Big Dipper in the sky.  So, how did they use the Big Dipper to find freedom? 

 Find out when Peg Leg Joe teaches Molly and her family to follow a group of stars in Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter.  

                                     

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