Books like The Devil Three Times

This young adult novel, based on a real person, focuses on the complex relationships between enslaved people and those that claimed them as property.

The real Oney Judge’s escape from President George Washington’s Philadelphia home so angered the founding father that he never stopped trying to recapture her. He couldn’t understand why she’d left because, in his eyes, she’d been treated like a member of the family.

I’m familiar with Oney’s story, but I loved hearing it from her point of view (as envisioned by author Rinaldi). I’m an Ann Rinaldi fan—she wrote dozens of works of historical fiction. She had a gift for creating compelling characters and mining historic records for details that bring time and place alive.

I loved this historical work about the real-life story of Ellen Craft, a young slave with a light complexion who escapes from the South with her partner, William, a slave of a darker complexion. The difficult voyage on a boat going north in which Ellen, who is impersonating a young white master traveling with his male slave, must converse with the white men on board as though she were one of them kept me in a state of high anxiety.

I prayed that she would succeed, agonizing over every difficult moment that could have aroused suspicions, internalizing the heroine’s terror and resolve. I loved the gripping prose and psychological insight of this author who has restored the voice of a remarkable woman who played an important role in the abolitionist movement. 

I was intrigued by this book. John Randolph, the madman of the title, was well known to me as the fiery and erratic defender of slavery, representing antebellum Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was sometimes for abolition and sometimes not. Who knew that this mostly unrepentant white slaveholder in his contested will freed hundreds of the enslaved?

But not so fast, I learned. There was much more to the story than a simple gesture of humanity granted posthumously. There was much litigation over his true intentions. And what would happen to those he manumitted once they resettled in the free state of Ohio? I found this biography full of complexity, nuance, and surprises. I loved this book—a largely unknown story well told. 

I’ve loved Andre Brink’s books ever since I discovered them in my late teens. He’s a celebrated South African author of protest literature, and his historical fiction, Philida, is one of my favourites. 

It’s a tender and yet powerful story about a woman born into slavery to a white family, who becomes the mother of four children by the son of her master. Although it reveals the sordid past of the country, much of Philida’s power lies in how personal it is.

I love how nuanced and intimate the story is and how one woman’s story says so much.

In the 18th century, more than 12 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas via the notorious Middle Passage. This book gave me an inside understanding of how the slave trade was stopped and vivid descriptions of the individuals who played leading roles.

My mind was also expanded with new knowledge about the extraordinary experience of slaves during the American Revolution. I loved the exciting and dramatic language that put me in the middle of the action.   

This new take on radical Black abolitionist Nat Turner surprised—and enlightened me. If you’ve always thought of Turner as no more than a violent insurrectionist hellbent on the massacre of whites in southside Virginia, think again. There was much more to him, I learned in this out-of-the-box biography of the man both vilified and idolized since the infamous 1831 killing spree.

He was immortalized in the fictionized best-seller Nat Turner’s Rebellion, but this new take shows that truth can be stranger than fiction. I learned that Turner, rather than a revolutionary motivated solely by hate, drew heavily on the Old Testament and other religious sources as he and his followers terrorized and murdered in what they deemed to be a righteous cause.      

Understandably even grumpier than Twain, for the most part, these Americans were held captive by Barbary “pirates” in North Africa and lived to tell about it. Their stories really got me interested in America’s interaction with North Africa on the southern edge of the Mediterranean. 

They provide lots of drama, with ship captures, dark dungeons, descriptions of their Muslim captors, daily life in North Africa, horrific torture, and more. Needless to say, some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt, but there’s a good reason many of these accounts were bestsellers when originally published.

The book starts off with the hero, Arimnestos of Platea, as the son of a farmer and ends with him, a cold-blooded and rational killer of men, proven in battle and with a terrible revenge yet to be taken. On one level, I found it to be a strong story taken from Greek history at the time of the Persian invasion, but I also marveled at the strength of Cameron’s characterization, his deeply detailed descriptions of war and battles, and most of all the undeniable fact that his re-enactment interest means that he knows just what it’s like to fight to the point of exhaustion in bronze armor or in a Greek phalanx.

By the end of this book, there was no choice. I was straight into the next, and this series is perhaps the strongest I’ve ever read on war in the ancient world, taking in Marathon, the naval… show more.

This is my go-to book when suggesting read-alouds for teachers and parents who want a charming and engaging story about honesty and compassion.

I love Libby (the main character) for many reasons. She embodies so much of what I was taught as a child about “telling the truth” and also experienced much of what I did before I learned the difference between hurtful and helpful words. My inner child can relate to the character’s missteps—as can my adult self—thus the reason I recommend it for all ages. (As a side note, and for all the right reasons, I also recommend Libby for President.) 

When comparing the Protestant and Catholic versions of Mary, the Catholics always come out on top. The Protestant Mary is little more than a vessel to house the Godhead, while the Catholic Mary is the Queen of Heaven. Indeed, medieval sermons stories and miracles align Mary most closely with the superheroes of the modern era: ready to help at a moment’s notice, she takes on the worst of villains and always wins. Yet, there’s something about Mary… despite being best known for a quintessentially feminine act (giving birth), she’s really not your typical woman. Why is that?

In this movingly written book, Monagle explains how scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages refashioned the ideal Mary by stripping away the inherent messiness of femininity. Monagle explores also the pitfalls of this perfection for the modern woman, taking aim at Gwyneth Paltrow, Marie Kondo, and Jordan Peterson, all of whom seek to… show more.