Twice Enslaved
Liberty and Justice for Henrietta Wood

This biography, which is written in verse, tells the story of Henrietta Wood, a woman born into slavery and liberated twice in her lifetime. Castrovilla’s language conveys not only the physically brutal nature of being enslaved, but how dehumanization is a central aspect of the experience. Readers f......more

ARC kindly sent by the publisher. All opinions are my own. This one comes out on the 3rd of February, 2026. Twice Enslaved is a short and informative nonfiction about the life of Henrietta Wood, a black woman who had to fight all her life to gain her freedom and be respected as a human being. Before p......more

This was quite a sad story. It tells the story of a young woman who was betrayed several times, resulting in a very hard life. It is told as a series of free-verse poems, each one on half a page. These poems added to the atmosphere of the story, which was written to show the injustice of what was do......more

I'd never heard of Henrietta Wood before reading this book and I won't be forgetting her anytime soon! What an incredible story of Henrietta's perseverance in a time when most viewed her as property. I thought the book struck a good balance for it being a children's book - honest and straightforward......more

Twice Enslaved Liberty and Justice for Henrietta Wood is a powerful nonfiction middle-grade novel in verse. It tells Henrietta Wood's painful story of enslavement as a young girl, separated from her family, her struggle to become a free woman, only to have it stolen from her, and her tenacious pursu......more