When fifteen-year-old Amari encounters pale strangers in her native African village, all is initially well; her tribe welcomes the strangers as visitors instead and rejoices their arrival, for visitors are always causes for celebration. However, their arrival takes a baleful turn as the strangers’ true natures are revealed: they are slave traders with every intention of capturing the strongest of natives for their own malicious purposes.

Amari’s life is changed dramatically at the turn of events. Beaten, branded, and dragged onto a slave ship, she is forced to endure humiliation and torture unlike any she has ever experienced, including being sold to a plantation owner in the Carolinas who gives her to his sixteen-year-old son, Clay, as his birthday present. Now, Amari can only dream to attain her freedom from her life’s brutal fate. She struggles with escapism and liberation, while finding friends in unexpected places along the journey.

A far reaching and detailed piece concerning the African slave trade, Copper Sun will explicate the turbulence surrounding a time of curiosity, ultimately putting human morality in perspective.

Copper Sun is a required reading for incoming Standard Freshmen.