If I had to rate this book on a scale of 1-10 I would give the book a 12. I absolutely loved this book! Copper sun is so well written that it feels as though you are inside of the book. It feels like I've known the characters my whole life and it seems like they are real people that live just around the corner. It is amazing because they might be real people who came before me, but their story is on paper. This book is a very mature read and I would highly recommend it to avid readers. I love how the book is so action packed and leaves you hanging each chapter wanting more, and how something is always going on making you wonder what will happen next. This is overall a very good book.
Other Reviews
**STARRED REVIEW-- JANUARY 1, 2006 ISSUE OF SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL COPPER SUN by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum; ISBN: 0689821816; January 2006)
**STARRED REVIEW IN THE FEBRUARY 1, 2006 ISSUE OF BOOKLIST COPPER SUN searing work of historical fiction
Plot Structure
Exposition: It all started when Besa (Amari's soon to be husband) saw the pale skin strangers in the forest. After they threw the strangers a celebration they killed her parents and stabbed her baby brother. They killed everyone except people around her age, and those who survived. She was then shackled to other people of chains and forced to walk a long horrible journey, where many will die, to Cape Coast to be locked in a room to later go through the door of no return to board a slave ship to go to the colonies then get sold.
Conflict: The main conflict of the book is when Afi tells Amari that she is a slave.
Rising action: When Amari is sold to the Derby's , with an indentured servant named Polly, she doesn't like plantation life, but likes Teenie and Polly and the other friends she made. Basically she has a routine she has to follow and each day has her duties. But one day she has to go in the house to help and gets brutally whipped. Then the mistress has a baby that's not from Mr. Derby but with her slave Noah. The baby is not white and that's a bad thing. Mr Derby kills the baby and noah and everyone is locked in the meat locker. The next day they run when they are being brought back to
When Amari's Ashanti village in Africa is attacked by Englishmen she doesn't think she can go on with life because everything she once had is destroyed. Her village is burned to ashes, her family killed, her soon to be husband taken away, and then she is shackled and forced to go on a nasty dirty boat with people she's never met. She lived in horrible conditions is what seemed like forever. When her trip is over and she is on land she is humiliated and violated of the only thing she had left, herself. She is sold to the derby's for Mr. Derby's son ,Clay, as a birthday gift. She is accompanied by an indentured servant named Polly who is paying off her parents indenture after their passing. Polly is put in charge of Amari when they get to the plantation and isn't very happy about it. She is told to break in Amari by teaching her some English. Teenie, the cook for the Derby's, befriends Amari and Polly immediately, and teaches them all about plantation life and Amari some English. Mr. Derby and Mrs. Derby are expecting a child so he is always worried about her. When Amari is made a servant to Mr. Derby for a few hours, she messes up and gets brutally whipped. Mrs. Derby stops him by telling him its not good for their baby, then comes and care for Amari's wounds. Later on the baby is to be born and sends Noah (Mrs. Derby's servant)to go get the doctor. Amari and Polly are told to go deliver the baby because the doctor wont be here in time. But then when the baby is born, it is a baby from her slave/servant Noah. They tried to stall the doctor's arrival, but it was no use . The baby was black and that was a very bad thing. After a failed attempt of trying to save the baby by having another slave claim it was theirs Mr. Derby kills the child and as well as Noah. Polly, Tidbit, Amari, and Teenie are locked in the meat locker as and are all to be sold except Teenie. It is then that they decide, with Cato's help, that they are going to make their escape. The next morning they are going back to town with the doctor who saw to Mrs. Derby, he tells them to run and that her was letting them go. So they did just that being careful and avoided anyone they could. They traveled through the woods and only moved at night. They meet many obstacles and even have Clay Derby find them, but they escape. Finally they reach the river they have to cross to get to Fort Mose, and they cross it with the help of a horse they obtained from a lady they met that wanted to help them. They walk for a while and then at long last they get to Fort Mose where Amari learns she is expecting.