# Chains

**Author:** Laurie Halse Anderson
**Lexile:** 780L
**Grade range:** Grades 5–9
**Age range:** 10–14
**First published:** 2008
**Page count:** 316
**Genre:** Historical Fiction (Middle Grade)
**ISBN-13:** `9781416905868`
**ISBN-10:** `1416905863`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/chains
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

As the American Revolution begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel — enslaved and promised a freedom that never comes — is sold to a cruel Loyalist couple in New York City and drawn into spying for the Patriots. Laurie Halse Anderson's first Seeds of America novel weighs Isabel's hope for liberty against a revolution that excludes her. A Scott O'Dell Award winner and National Book Award finalist, it is a frequent grade 5-9 text for studying slavery and the founding era.

## Themes

- slavery
- freedom
- resilience
- loyalty
- revolution

## Content notes

- slavery
- violence
- period racism

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