Runaway Jack - Stewart Lees

When Isaac discovers a little wooden horse among his grandfather's treasures, he longs to find out where it comes from. Set in the American South, the story tells of Isaac's great-great-great-grandfather, Jack, and Jack's sister, Molly, who are sold into slavery on a tobacco plantation. Jack gives Molly a little wooden horse as a keepsake before he is sold on downriver to a cotton plantation. Soon Jack is forced to flee for his life, hiding in the marshlands before stowing away on a Mississippi paddle-steamer. Eventually it is the little wooden horse that reunites him with Molly, in a dramatic and poignant story that takes an unsentimental look at the life of runaway slaves.