Second Edition Now Available!

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Civil War is raging in America and fifteen-year-old Thomas Beck doesn’t quite fit in. He’s neither black nor white, slave nor free, and yet, Thomas dreams of becoming a Yankee and joining the fight for freedom. After successfully sneaking into the Union Army, Thomas gets his wish, but he’s a Chinese Yankee—different in looks and hairstyle, but not in heart. Finding himself unwelcome by either blue or gray, Thomas forms an unlikely friendship with a runaway slave as the fight moves toward a pivotal moment in Gettysburg. Freedom for Me is a historical novel based on a real Chinese Yankee, one of only a few who served in the American Civil War.

 

Freedom for Me earned the prestigious Kirkus Star in July 2022 and won the Children's Literary Classics Gold Medal for “Coming of Age” upper middle grade fiction and the Silver Medal for “Historical” upper middle grade fiction in 2018. It also earned the Skipping Stones 2018 Honor Award for Multicultural Teen Fiction and 2018 Royal Butterfly Award Honorable Mentions for Historical Fiction and Cultural Diversity. It is five-star rated by Readers' Favorite and LitPick.