A Cage Without Bars

Anne Dublin’s book A Cage Without Bars is the story of a young Jewish boy named Joseph who, along with his younger sister, is forcibly taken away from his parents after all Jewish people were expelled from Spain in 1492. He and many other children are sent to a small island on the coast of West Africa where they are forced into slavery on a sugar plantation. The novel follows Joseph’s story as he tries to make himself indispensable to the captain in charge of the plantation in order to avoid the horrors that befall other children like himself.

I would be very surprised to look through the collection in my intermediate school library and find another historical fiction novel with this particular setting. This difference made it automatically grab my attention; it’s easy to find books about wars and other major world events, but for students who love to read historical fiction, books about time periods they know nothing about are particularly appealing.

One of the strengths of this novel is that it is well researched and informative (if perhaps a little heavy on the agricultural descriptions). As someone with little knowledge of this time period, I appreciated not only the story but also the list of related articles, websites, and further reading suggestions at the end of the book. The “Historical Note” at the beginning gives a clear and simple summary of the historical events. I do wish the endnotes were footnotes; as a teacher, I know there are many students who won’t make the effort to flip to the end of the book for more information, but the content located within these endnotes is incredibly valuable and relevant to the story.

Dublin manages to strike a good balance when sharing the reality of the situation; the story is told in a way that is appropriate for young readers but doesn’t gloss over the horrors faced by the real children upon whom the story is based. She also paces the story well, giving the first six of 20 chapters to the journey and the rest to the time spent on the plantation.

The voice of the main character is clear, believable, and straightforward. Joseph relates a very factual telling of the events of the story, and the book reads like a journal at times. As Joseph wasn’t a particularly emotional character, I don’t know if readers will necessarily connect with him. A Cage Without Bars would engage readers because of their curiosity about the plot rather than the characters. There were a lot of characters mentioned, and, as some were quite short lived, it made it difficult to connect with any one in particular.

Overall, A Cage Without Bars is a short, well paced novel that will likely fill in a very specific gap in a young adult historical fiction collection.