Delia Sherman's The Freedom Maze
It's the summer of 1960, and young Sophie is sent to live with her (casually racist) grandmother and aunt in Louisiana after her parents divorce. But when she encounters a mysterious creature in a hedge maze, she gets whisked back to 1860 (just like her favorite book by one of my favorite authors, Edward Eager's The Time Garden), where she's mistaken for a light-skinned slave and sent to work in the Big House on the plantation. Sherman makes Sophie's experiences feel real without being heavy-handed--I think it would be really easy to cross that line, but she toes it gracefully. Clearly a lot of research went into this, and it's especially satisfying to read it as a book and history nerd. I love books where contemporary characters go back in time and learn valuable historical lessons. A.
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