Susan Zimet

I received this book for free from the publisher (Viking Children’s Books) in exchange for an honest review.

Prior to reading this book I knew quite a bit about the suffrage movement in the US. I had read Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis when I was in college and that book went into great detail about the complexity of the movement.

What I loved about this book was that it did not shy away from discussing Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s racism nor did it try to justify it. The author writes, “To justify her racism as simply ‘commonplace’ for her time ignores the fact that there was nothing commonplace about her at all. Stanton, one of the true heroes of this story, was deeply flawed and sadly wrong when it came to matters of race” (63-64).

Sprinkled throughout the book are little sidebars with biographies of key women and other facts pertaining to the movement. I found these to be incredibly insightful and helpful in explaining the movement.

This book is middle-grade (the recommended age is 10 and up) and I think it did a great job describing the history of the suffrage movement in an easy-to-follow way. Everything was explained in kid friendly language, so this book is perfect for the intended age group.

Overall, this book is a perfect introduction to the women’s suffrage movement that doesn’t sugar coat the truth.… (more)