Big Jabe

Author: Jerdine Nolen

Title: Big Jabe

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Genre: Talltale
Subgenre: Historical Fiction

Theme: Freedom

Primary Characters: Addy, Jabe

Secondary characters: Mr. Plenty, Sweetie Belle

Awards: none

Date of publication: 2000

Publishing company: Harper Collins

Summary: 

Addy is fishing for Mr. Plenty's supper one day when she notices a basket in the river.  She finds a 5 or 6 year old boy in the basket who gives Addy a pear. He then calls the fish in the river to get in Addy's wagon and plants the seeds from the pear, which grow into a tree almost overnight.  The boy, Jabe, grows very quickly.  Within a few months, he is working on the plantation with the strength of as much as fifty men.  Mysterious events take place around Jabe.  Each time the plantation overseer punishes one of the slaves, a huge storm comes up in the night, and the following day the punished slave had vanished.  Only Addy suspects the truth: that Jabe, with his mythic powers, is spiriting the slaves away to freedom.

Use with Students:   After studying slavery, we will read Big Jabe.  I will have the children think of ways in which Jabe could ease the pain for the slaves.  The students could also illustrate this pictures.