Told in the first person from the point of view of a young child, this moving picture book tells the story of how the young Frederick Douglass learned to read and write in spite of the prohibition on literacy amongst the slave population of 1820's USA. His achievement helps him understand the system of that has entrapped him and is the foundation for his later career as a leader of the antislavery movement and author of the famous autobiography from which this adaptation is drawn.The drama and dangers of his quest for knowledge are vividly realised in colour illustrations by James E. Ransome.