By Kelly Starling Lyons
Illustrated by Daniel Minter
Historical Fiction
In this story Ellen is in church with the rest of the recently freed people of color. Everybody is happy because they do not have to sit in the back seats of the church. Their worship songs seem to have a totally new meaning and they are in their own church. News come that people that are married by the traditional slave way can now get a marriage certificate. Everybody is happy. Ellen's parents decide to go and get their marriage certificate and tell Ellen that they are taking the broom because it is part of their family. They explain how before it was legal for them to get married they would jump the broom as a sign that they were married. They get to the courthouse and Ellen sees a woman wearing a nice dress but not his mother so she gets her sister to go with her to get some flowers and put them on the broom as if it was a flower bouquet. They take it back to their mom and the marriage takes place. On their way back home they have a picnic and Ellen asks them to jump the broom since it is a part of their lives. They go home and they place the broom back on the wall where it was. They hang the marriage certificate right underneath the broom.
I would use this book in my class because it is a nice story and the illustrations are very nice. It would be a way to help students understand that slavery existed in the United States and that it was a part of life. I would use this in 1st through 3rd grade. It would be used for a social studies lesson.
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