McBride, James

Runaway slave Liz Spocott, wounded during capture by notorious slave trader Patty Cannon, meets an ancient nameless woman in Cannon's prison attic who teaches her "the Code," a cryptic means of communication by which runaways reach freedom, and when she escapes once again, Liz uses the code, as well as visions of the future, to help her on her way north.

James McBride chronicles his twelve-year journey to learn about his mother's past, describing her unhappy childhood, marriage, refusal to admit she was white, and creation of an all-black church in Harlem, and shares details of his own life and the challenges he faced coping with his family's secrets.

An African-American male tells of his mother, a white woman, who refused to admit her true identity.

Four American soldiers seek refuge in the small village of St. Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany during World War II, never imagining how the events which take place there will change their lives forever.

Four American soldiers seek refuge in the small village of St. Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany during World War II, never imagining how the events which take place there will change their lives forever.

An African-American male tells of his mother, a white woman, who refused to admit her true identity.

James McBride shares the story of his mother's life and complicated racial identity which he only learned after becoming an adult. He tells of her infancy in Poland as the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, her childhood in small-town Virginia, her move to Harlem at the age of eighteen, her marriage to an African-American man, her achievements as a wife and mother to twelve children, and her refusal to ever admit she is white.

Four American soldiers seek refuge in the small village of St. Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany during World War II, never imagining how the events which take place there will change their lives forever.

Fleeing his violent master at the side of abolitionist John Brown at the height of the slavery debate in mid-nineteenth-century Kansas Territory, Henry pretends to be a girl to hide his identity throughout the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.