I am the river. Blue and green, fast and flowing,
sweeping river grasses aside . . .
moving between Lake Erie and Detroit.
The Detroit River has long had a story to tell. It has seen a time before people. And it has seen many faces cross its waters, from Indigenous people guiding canoes to settlers on its banks and freedom seekers riding the underground railroad north toward liberty, with Bob-Lo Island at the river's end, so close to Canada. At one time, a giant steamboat carried hundreds of excited children and adults to the amusement park that was built on Bob-Lo.
But Sarah E. Ray discovered in 1945 that not all people were invited on this boat, to this island, once a symbol of the journey to freedom. It depended, she discovered, on the color of your skin.
This is the dramatic story of how one young woman's courage could create a dramatic turning point that would stand out proudly, and forevermore, in the history of a river older than the country called America.
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Levine Querido
Published: 01/06/2026
ISBN: 9781646145805
Pages: 48
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 11.10w x 0.50d
Review Citations: School Library Journal 10/01/2025 pg. 89
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2025
Publishers Weekly 11/17/2025
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2025
Booklist 12/01/2025
