Connie Rose Porter

Nine-year-old Addy Walker escapes from a cruel life of slavery to freedom during the Civil War

After escaping from a plantation in North Carolina, Addy and her mother arrive in Philadelphia, where Addy goes to school and learns a lesson in true friendship

After her brother joins the family in Philadelphia at the end of the Civil War, Addy wants to be with him as much as possible, so she is jealous when he starts spending time with her friend's cousin. Includes information about the life of African Americans in Philadelphia in the 1860s and a recipe for letter cookies

After the Civil War ends, Addy desperately hopes that her family will be reunited in freedom in Philadelphia, but the future may hold both happiness and heartache

Addy's jubilation over her family's new freedoms is cut short by the news that President Lincoln has been shot and killed.