Kim L Siegelson

Mentu, an American-born slave boy, watches his beloved grandmother, Twi, lead the insurrection at Teakettle Creek of Ibo people arriving from Africa on a slave ship.

In 1864, two boys, one a slave running toward freedom and one hoping to collect the reward for capturing him, make their way through Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, relying on knowledge the white boy's father, disabled by the war, had passed on to him in happier times.

Jonas wants to keep the memory of his beloved Gullah grandfather alive by representing his family at the traditional storytelling contest, even though he feels like a nervous child trying to do a man's job.