Young Adult Fiction / Family / Multigenerational / Fantasy / African American & Black
“Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps in,” Grannylou interrupted. “You remember that now, Baby. Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps to paradise.”
On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings, enslaved on a Virginia plantation, witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher’s son—so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp’s natural—and supernatural—protection.
