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Rating: 
Summary: From a Teacher's Viewpoint
Review: During the 1850's the north and the south were divided over slavery. Lucy Spencer a young girl of 16, who lived in Ohio, had been helping her family run an Underground Railroad station since she was 12. Lucy's life slowly begins to change as she becomes more personally involved. Young Lucy is soon awakened by her own personal convictions concerning slavery, particularly when she befriends and becomes emotionally attached to a family fleeing north. In addition, she finds herself torn between the Presbyterian boy she always thought she would marry, and a young Quaker, whose convictions are very similar to hers but lifestyle is vastly different. Through the guidance of an older woman, Miss Aurelia, Lucy discovers an inner strength as she is drawn deeper involved in the world of the Underground Railroad. Eventually, Lucy's involvement leads her to the difficult decision of saving the life of an orphaned colored baby and as a consequence leaving her town and family forever.This is a typical coming of age story of a young northern girl who comes to the realization that she has the ability to choose for herself the direction of her life, and the convictions she must follow. This is an excellent story that weaves the reader slowly and thoughtfully into the life of Lucy and the world of the Underground Railroad. This book is an excellent resource to use with either 4th or 5th graders who are being introduced to the topic of slavery for the first time. This book also allows the teacher a rich variety of topics to integrate into other content areas such as, history, language arts, geography and social relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: I read it in 4th grade
Review: I read North By Night in 4th grade and, at the time I loved Civil War stories. I don't anymore. That book scared me. I think it was too deep for me to read in that grade. But now I read Shakespeare and other classics. They don't scare me. I don't know what it was about that book. Sorry. I know that this isn't a very good review it's just how I feel.
Rating:
Summary: I read it in 4th grade
Review: I read North By Night in 4th grade and, at the time I loved Civil War stories. I don't anymore. That book scared me. I think it was too deep for me to read in that grade. But now I read Shakespeare and other classics. They don't scare me. I don't know what it was about that book. Sorry. I know that this isn't a very good review it's just how I feel.
Rating:
Summary: Summary and Review
Review: Life in the 1850's was an intense period in American history. Conflicts between the northern and southern ways of life caused major conflicts. Life was challenging but families worked together to create thriving homes. Set up as a series of dated journal entries, the pages of this engaging novel are straight from the mind of a courageous heroine, sixteen-year old Lucinda Spencer. Between farming chores and a blossoming love life, Lucinda struggles with an abundance of challenges and choices. Her great passion in life since the age of 12 is to work with her family on the Underground Railroad and help fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. When other local Ohio conductors are caught breaking the Fugitive Slave Laws by harboring runaways, her family must be more cautious than ever. Despite the consequences of imprisonment and high fines, Lucy braves her greatest challenge when an expectant mother is among a group of weary fugitives in the dead of winter. While her friends believe she is nursing the respected Miss Aurelia during her alleged battle with smallpox, she is actually helping the widow, a fellow worker, prepare her new friends for their journey north. During this time, she communicates with her loved ones through written letters and with the reader through journal entries. Lucy quickly learns there is more to life than traditional sewing and cooking skills. She deals with complex issues of loyalty and diversity. In the end, when she is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice, she learns the real meaning of sacrificial love. Although written on a fifth grade level, this book has implied themes of slavery and adult relationships that may seem more suitable for seventh or eight graders. It could easily be used to reinforce lessons in history, geography, music, and character values. An interesting approach to a shadowy topic all as seen through the eyes of one exceedingly valiant teenage girl, North by Night is historical fiction at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: North by Night
Review: North by Night is about a time during slavery when the Underground Railroad existed. A young lady named Lucinda went to help a woman named Miss Aurelia because everyone thought she had the measles, but she really didn't have them though. Lucinda went there to help care for runaway slaves. In one case a father didn't escape but his wife and family did. He was later rescued by Lucinda's brother Will and a young man named Jeremiah. Soon after the family moved to Cleveland and then to Canada. There, they couldn't be caught by slave owners and taken back to slavery on the plantation. I chose to read this book because it was about the Underground Railroad. It has a lot of history related to it that I wanted to know more about. While in slavery, the slaves were often forced to do certain things they didn't agree with. I enjoyed this book because it expressed the way slaves resisted being slaves and how they took chances just to be free. If Lucinda and Miss Aurelia hadn't cared for this family, then they would have had a terrible life for as long as they lived. My favorite part of this book is when the slave owners began to search for their missing slaves in nearby villages. When the slave owners came to the house that Miss Aurelia had been using to care for the slaves, they searched everywhere except the secret room where the slaves were being hidden. The slave owners suspected nothing and eventually left. They didn't want to be around Miss Aurelia because everyone said she had the measles but she really didn't. Everyone ended up being safe and avoided being captured by the slave trackers.
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Summary: A Teenager's View of the Underground Railroad
Review: The story of the `Underground Railroad' comes to life through the words in Lucinda Spencer's diary. Although the book only covers two months of her life, it still offers the reader a vivid picture of the perils of runaway slaves and those who strived to help them reach freedom from slavery. Lucinda's life was affected by the choices she had made and the people who crossed her path as she toiled as an abolitionist under the disguise of tending a woman who had measles. Lucinda's choices lead her to new relationships but also caused her to sever ties with many people that she cared about who didn't and couldn't know about her work on the `railroad'. This is a bittersweet story about the need for tolerance of differences among diverse people that teaches the reader about the secret life of an `Underground Railroad' worker in the free state of Ohio in 1861. This book would be interesting to students in the 5th grade and above. Parents and teachers could use this book to teach history, geography, social relationships, art, and health.
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Summary: Ohio 1851
Review: This book is written in the form of a diary. It is very interesting. 16 year old Lucinda Spencer and her family run an uderground railroad station. Read to learn about the mysteries of the underground railroad with the life of a 16 year old.
Rating:
Summary: North by Night
Review: This is a very good book about the Underground Railroad.It gives people a look of how hard life was back then.In this book,a teen- aged girl is making sacrafices that could get her killed so she can help slaves get to Canada safely.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: When I read this book, I immediately fell in love with it. Not only does it have adventure and romance, but it made me actually interested in history for once. This book is about the courageous 16-year-old abolitionist Lucinda Spencer, whose house is a station in the underground railroad. Her world is a world of slave rescue and secrecy, division between the north and south over the Fugitive Slave Laws. She sets off on the greatest adventure and deception of her life. She is to help Miss Aurelia aid runaway slaves to freedom, under the story that Miss Aurelia has small pox and Lucy is helping her to recover. Her must help nine slaves, one an expectant mother, and now her new friends prepare to go to Canada. She keeps in touch with her family and friends through letters. She learns her true beliefs and the beliefs of others and learns that for her there will be more to life than cooking and cleaning. In the end, when she must make her biggest sacrifice and give up everything she has known and loved, she learns how much she has taken for granted. This is a book that not only contains adventure and romance, but also portrays the the topic of slavery through the eyes of a brave 16-year-old heroine.
Rating:
Summary: North By Night
Review: When I read this book, I immediately fell in love with it. Not only does it have adventure and romance, but it made me actually interested in history for once. This book is about the courageous 16-year-old abolitionist Lucinda Spencer, whose house is a station in the underground railroad. Her world is a world of slave rescue and secrecy, division between the north and south over the Fugitive Slave Laws. She sets off on the greatest adventure and deception of her life. She is to help Miss Aurelia aid runaway slaves to freedom, under the story that Miss Aurelia has small pox and Lucy is helping her to recover. Her must help nine slaves, one an expectant mother, and now her new friends prepare to go to Canada. She keeps in touch with her family and friends through letters. She learns her true beliefs and the beliefs of others and learns that for her there will be more to life than cooking and cleaning. In the end, when she must make her biggest sacrifice and give up everything she has known and loved, she learns how much she has taken for granted. This is a book that not only contains adventure and romance, but also portrays the the topic of slavery through the eyes of a brave 16-year-old heroine.
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