by Lee Edward Fodi (Illustrator), Kyra E. Hicks (Author)

Martha Ann is twelve years old when Papa finally saves enough money to purchase her freedom from slavery. In 1830, the family leaves east Tennessee to begin a new life in Liberia. On market days, Martha Ann watches the British navy patrolling the Liberian coast to stop slave catchers from kidnapping her family and friends and forcing them back into slavery. Martha Ann decides to thank Queen Victoria in person for sending the navy. But first, she must determine how to make the 3,500-mile voyage to England, find a suitable gift for the Queen, and withstand the ridicule of family and friends who learn of her impossible dream. Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria is the true story of Martha Ann Ricks, an ex-slave who spent fifty years saving spare coins to fulfill her dream of meeting the Queen of England.

Author Biography

Kyra E. Hicks is a marketing professional and quilter. She was so mesmerized after seeing Eva Ungar Grudin's 1990 exhibition, "Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts," that she began to teach herself to create her own quilts. "I found my voice that afternoon in the museum," she remembers. Today, Kyra's quilts have been included in more than forty exhibitions in venues such as the American Craft Museum in New York, the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford. She hosts the African American quilting news blog, Black Threads.