When his brother represents his village in a festival contest, resulting in the unthinkable, 11-year-old Kofi finds himself fighting for his life, which sends him on a dangerous journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

While the Civil War tears the United States in half, you are locked in a Confederate prison. Determined to help your country become whole again, you plan a bold escape. Will you crawl through a rat-infested tunnel? Or will you fake your demise to get tossed out with the dead? Every decision can be the difference between life and death! Which path will you choose to make it out alive. Features 43 choices and 23 endings.

In this alternative history it is the summer of 1863, and as the Civil War rages between dinosaur-mounted armies down south, and a tense New York City seems on the brink of exploding into riots, Magdalys Roca and the other children at the Colored Orphan Asylum are trying to survive; but when she receives a letter telling her that her brother Montez was wounded, Magdalys knows that somehow she must reach him--and just possibly her ability to communicate...

In this powerful novel-in-verse that chronicles the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, 14 distinct voices recreate a pivotal moment in history.