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My first five star read of the month. This is such a heartbreaking story! Told by three different points of view, two sons of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and another slave boy. The author does an amazing job. #MiddleGradeMarchThroughTime megnews

Bradley portrays Jefferson as a Roman-style paterfamilias, with his conviction that everyone on his estate is his family, including those he both owns and fathered, and he is the head of them all. It is difficult to reconcile the Jefferson of the Declaration with the Jefferson who trafficked in human beings. Bradley doesn't provide answers, but she does offer a historically-based way to envision the lives of those his actions affected.

Out on an audiowalk when I spotted autumn! That's about the extent of it in coastal southern California. That and rain, which starts tomorrow. Very exciting!

"It was April and all Monticello was stirring, but in their cabin Mama had just put baby Maddy down to sleep and she told Beverly and Harriet to be still."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

#J is for Jefferson‘s Sons, one of the few books that has made me cry. The lack of true acknowledgment and love from a father and the sacrifices Sally and children made for them to thrive in the world made this a heartbreaker.
#middlegrade #30Junebooks

I have read this author before. She does a great job of taking facts that are known in history and creating a story around them. The story about Jefferson's son with his slave was beautifully done. Young adults and adults should I read it.

I loved this book! I felt she researched her subject well and truly enjoyed tell the story!

Finished this as a homeschool History read for Early American History. Amazing. Heartbreaking. A perspective that is vital. I wish it was required reading. I have many thoughts but some of them are fury that we still have people who refuse to understand the evil of slavery.

Loved. Didn‘t even realize it was MG because it was upfront about tough events, not inappropriately so. I wish I‘d listened to it on audio with my children. My only issue is that Harriet, the daughter, wasn‘t given a protagonist role like her brothers. Her portrayal was tangential to theirs. Highly recommend for everyone. Fascinating. Very well-researched. I visited Monticello soonafter and everything I saw or asked abt checked out.

This was a fascinating historical fiction read about what life might have been like for the children of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. The author kept the story appropriate for upper grade school-middle school while not shying away from hard questions.
I do have an issue with the title (there's a daughter too!) and there's a switch toward the end to the perspective of a child who is not a child of Hemings.
#notawhiteprotagonist