ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY: Five Journeys to Freedom <i> by Doreen Rappaport (HarperCollins: $12.95; 110 pp.).</i>

Each of the five dramatic accounts of slave escapes salutes the perseverance of the human spirit. From the tale of Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself to freedom in a tiny box, to William and Ellen Craft, a married couple who posed as master and slave, Rappaport retells stories of courage with mixed success. Her greatest strength lies in her depictions of free and slave African-Americans at both ends of the underground railroad. “Escape from Slavery” makes for exciting read-aloud. However, the book stumbles: Quakers are identified as “white.” Other characters are labeled as “good white” men. Why is this necessary? Only AfricanAmericans speak an inaccurate, jerky dialect while Southern whites speak “standard” English. Slave masters are described as “kind.” In “Two Tickets for Mr. Johnson and Slave,” light-skinned Ellen Craft poses as her husband’s white master in a dangerous plan to reach Philadelphia. By identifying Ellen’s white father as simply “her father,” Rappaport leads the naive reader to assume that this man was just that, ignoring the reality that he was a member of the slave-holding aristocracy and not married to Ellen’s mother. Such distortions matter because they create a sense of normalcy where none existed. Though flawed, the account salutes hundreds of thousands of unknown African Americans who risked everything to live free. No matter the price.

FREEDOM SONG by Yvette Moore (Orchard Books: $14.95; 168 pp.) .

Moore’s first novel takes on a historical event in America that was nothing short of revolutionary--the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Fourteen-year-old, brash, Brooklyn-born Sheryl Williams narrates her journey from a “wanna-be flygirl” to a fledgling “freedom fighter.” Set in 1963, the story harnesses the power of the universal quest for freedom. A family visit to relatives in North Carolina thrusts Sheryl and her kin into the throes of the early voter-registration drives and sit-ins. Drawn by her enigmatic Uncle Pete, Sheryl is catapulted into the ugly realities of institutional racism. The daily insults of segregated eating, shopping and public transportation dwindle in significance to the violence that erupts. When the North Carolina freedom school is bombed and her Uncle Pete is murdered, Sheryl loses her innocence. A fighter, even from her home in Brooklyn, she enlists her friends, family and church to raise money to fuel the movement. Tragedy spurs Sheryl to grow beyond her fears. Moore’s uneven writing, sprinkled with sophomoric alliterations and metaphors, disrupts the pulse of the book, although the story is strong and moving, able to carry itself without pretentious descriptions. Still, at the conclusion, one is left with respect and concern for young Sheryl and her extended family.

FINDING BUCK MCHENRY by Alfred Slote (HarperCollins: $13.95; 250 pp.) .

Birmingham Black Barons . . . Pittsburgh Crawfords . . . Kansas City Monarchs, play ball! That cry belonged to an era when American baseball meant white players only and the Negro League teams were relegated to second-class status. But for 11-year-old Jason Ross, an avid baseball-card collector, the past collides with his present when he becomes convinced that his former school janitor was a famous player from those times. Slote re-creates the world of segregated baseball by blending in the frustrations and dreams of a boy born and reared in a present-day Michigan University town. Kicked off his Little League team, Jason pours his heart out to Mr. Mack Henry, a school custodian. He befriends Mr. Henry, his wife and grieving grandson, setting into action the start of a new baseball team and the unraveling of painful secrets.

With an eager white boy and an older African-American custodian in a midwestern town, the groundwork should be laid for some insights regarding racial relations. Unfortunately, Slote looks only to the past, skimming the present. The book is almost over before a believable question is raised: A white kid sees Aaron, Mr. Henry’s grandson and asks “Who’s the black kid?” That question is everyday America. But Slote erases the racial realities of Jason’s world in exchange for an exciting but surface mystery. Jason bikes to the never-identified black section of town as if he were born there; he relates to an African-American janitor with the respect reserved for an older relative; and brings Mr. Henry in as a Little League coach without so much as a “Who’s the old black man?” from any of the colorblind adult characters. A suspenseful plot and intriguing characters create a fast-paced story, but sadly, not the authentic, rich book that it might have been.