DEAR AMERICA: Clotee

I swear, Clotee has more images for her one book than any other Dear America! I'm trying to fit them all in here and not just have a bunch of pictures and no words!

A Picture of Freedom is one of the most well-known Dear America books. It's the story of a young slave girl who learns to read and write while fanning the master's son.

Clotee is a captivating character and she's surrounded by an equally strong cast. I love Spicy and I always wanted her to go more in depth on her own story. I would have loved for Missy to get more of a comeuppance, too. And I always felt Hince got off a little too lightly, too, considering his betrayal in the end. Clotee's smart thinking got them out of it, but he never should have done it and there should have been more words about it.

Being such a staple for the series, Clotee was of course chosen to be part of the reboot. Her new artwork is very pretty, but I prefer the picture used for the original book.













Clotee's book was one of the few used by the UK version of Dear America, called My Story. I think they could have tried a little harder at finding a title though! "Slave Girl" is just plain bad on its own, but it's exceptionally poor compared with the poignancy of "A Picture of Freedom" and how that title ties in with the story. There is a photograph cover also shown for the My Story version, but I'm not going to place it here, as it takes up too much space. It's hard to say a lot about a book as good as this and I don't like to post entries that are all pictures with no words beside.

Clotee's story was one of the ones chosen to be filmed for HBO, although I can't remember if I've seen it or not. I want to say yes, but I'm not sure. 

Clotee was also in the sadly unproduced second wave of Madame Alexander Dear America dolls. Considering her book was fourth in the series, I feel she should have gotten a space in the initial lineup in place of Margaret Ann Brady (the Titanic girl) or even my fave Caty, as both of their books came afterwards. Mem's a Mayflower girl and Abigail is Revolutionary War, but Clotee should have been there, too, instead of one of the others. 

Her doll is really cute, too, although definitely not accurate to the story. She never had that elaborate an outfit and her doll in the story was a small wooden carving. 

Clotee's book is definitely a must read for the Dear America series.