Great Escapes

Long (the What It Was Like series) chronicles 32 tales of elaborate, creative, and oftentimes astonishing escapes in this bite-size collection spanning 165 years. For enslaved peoples, prisoners of war, and other people held captive behind stone walls, wooden stockades, barbed wire, and metal bars, planning and executing schemes of escape helped to distract themselves from experiencing starvation, deprivation, physical violence, and degradation. Utilitarian text describes familiar getaways, such as Henry “Box” Brown, an enslaved man who, in 1849, gained freedom after shipping himself from Virginia to Pennsylvania inside a wooden crate, and Dan Cooper, who, while flying as a passenger in 1971, hijacked his flight and, upon landing and receiving ransom money, took off on a separate voyage and was never found. Some of the most fascinating stories detail the inventions of British WWII pilot “Clutty” Hutton, who developed gadgets for a secret branch of military intelligence that helped prisoners of war escape; one such invention was a map printed on paper so thin it could be hidden between the front and back of a single playing card. Arresting comics illustrations by Coe (Art Schooled) evoke a tense, noir-like ambiance using bold light and shadow effects that amplify the life-or-death stakes of each included breakout. Ages 9–11. (Nov.)