*Under the quilt of night   Deborah Hopskinson

This is a great story of a quest for freedom.  It is about slaves who are seeking their freedom and do so through the night, and as a sign for participants in the underground railroad the signal is color quilts on the line that signal if the house is friendly for hiding slaves and helping them seek their freedom.  In this particiular story there are slaves who seek freedom and run during the night and sleep in the bushes during the day, and head out and see a house with quilts out that have colors they do not reconize.  They soon find that the house is friendly and they seek refuge and food there, and soon continue on their quest for freedom.  It is an easy read and has very easy to understand content and easy language for learning about the underground railroad and slavery.  It is suited for 1st grade and above and has beautiful illustrations to back up the content.