The latest picture book from artist Henry Cole is extraordinary in its silence, which conveys both the urgency of the secrecy surrounding the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves find freedom, and the burden of tension shared by runaways and their surreptitious hosts.
It begins with a quilt draped over a fence, then an image of a farm girl watching Confederate soldiers ride down the road. She goes on with her chores. Something in the stacked corn startles her. Do the adults know about the people hiding in the barn?