The Freedom of Jenny, based on the true story of the immigration of black settlers to western Canada, follows young Jenny Estes as her family, their freedom paid for by the father's wages from a grueling cattle drive, make their way to California. But the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 when the US Supreme Court ruled people of African origin-free or enslaved-could never be citizens made California no safer than the Missouri they'd escaped. So when James Douglas, fearful his fledgling colony of New Caledonia was vulnerable to southern aggression, offers protection and equality under the British flag, Jenny's family and dozens of other black families push on once again. In her research author Julie Burtinshaw, inspired by the life story of Sylvia Stark, who settled on Salt Spring Island in 1860, discovered fully one-third of the cowboys who tamed the American West were black, as were many in the sixty-man staff of BC's first police force. 1-55192-839-6

--review by Louise Donnelly, who writes from Vernon.

[BCBW 2006] "Kidlit"