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The Slave Dancer is a children's novel written by Paula Fox and published in 1973 by Bradbury Press. It tells the story of a boy musician named Jessie Bollier who was kidnapped and forced to play music on a ship of African slave trade. The book received the Newbery Medal in 1974.

Description
The book, originally published in 1973 has been reprinted many times and a variety of formats from print to digital and audio, with different illustrations for each. Currently sold editions, most popularly printed by Aladdin pareaperback edition and measure 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.6. The book features themes of poverty and Slavery aimed at young adult readers ages 11 to 14 or grade levels 6 to hough.

Plot
Set in pre-Civil War New Orleans, The Slave Dancer tells the story of a thirteen year old boy musician. He is kidnapped and taken aboard an African slave ship called "The Moonlight," where he is forced to play his fife to keep slaves aboard the ship physically fit and "profitable" for trade. Although horrified by the treatment of the slaves and hardships they have to live through, he begins to hate the men aboard, blaming them for his own enslavement, all the while facing sea storms that in the end leave him shipwrecked.

Reception
The book is a Zilveren Griffel Winner. Nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award. School Library Journal calls it "Spellbinding...will horrify as well as fascinate." Booklist's review says it is "Movingly and realistically presents one of the most gruesome chapters of history."