The scholar who found the treasure
Dr. Cheryl Janifer LaRoche didn't just research the Underground Railroad. She excavated it on projects like the African Burial Ground Project in New York City also through consulting work for organizations including the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Park Service.
Real sites. Real artifacts. Real proof that these stories of courage happened. One of the world's leading archaeological experts on the Underground Railroad, Dr. LaRoche has spent decades uncovering what others thought was lost forever. She has received several accolades for her scholarship namely the Calvert Prize (2023) and the John L. Cotter Award (2011). Dr. LaRoche serves as an associate research professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Now she has woven those discoveries into an adventure young readers will never forget.
Why she wrote it for children
The people who built the Underground Railroad were not distant figures in a textbook. They were children who went on to change the world, and neighbors of every background who became heroes. Ordinary people who chose extraordinary courage.
That is the history The Resurrectors puts into a young reader's hands: not a lesson about the past, but an argument about what they might do with the present.
Because some stories must be resurrected.
Credits
Written by Cheryl Janifer LaRoche
Illustrated by Chuck Collins
Cover art by Chuck Collins
Design by Melanie Charlton
Published by Half Wild Press
www.drcherylaroche.com
© 2026 Cheryl Janifer LaRoche