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YOU WANT WOMEN TO VOTE, LIZZIE STANTON?

Name: YOU WANT WOMEN TO VOTE, LIZZIE STANTON?
Author: Jean Fritz
ISBN: 0-399-22786-5

by Jean Fritz & illustrated by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 1995

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The early women's rights and suffrage advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the focus of a readable, accessible biography. She comes alive for middle graders in a narrative with almost novelistic pacing, a dose of humor, and an affectionate point of view. Fritz (Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers, 1994, etc.) vividly relates how Stanton, early on, felt the sting of injustice in being a girl, and that even her own father was sorry she was not a boy. As an adult, she was drawn into an iconoclastic circle of friends that included Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony. By making clear that many of the early supporters of rights for women were also strongly anti-slavery, Fritz leads readers almost effortlessly through such important events as the Seneca Falls (New York) Convention in 1848, the impact of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, and Reconstruction and the postCivil War 19th century. Lively, enjoyable fare from a reliable and expert storyteller. (Biography. 10- 14)

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1995

ISBN: 0-399-22786-5

Page Count: 82

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
by Jean Fritz & illustrated by Ian Schoenherr

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO’S SAYING WHAT IN JAMESTOWN, THOMAS SAVAGE?
by Jean Fritz & illustrated by Sally Wern Comport

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
by Jean Fritz & illustrated by Hudson Talbott

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THE SEVENTH MOST IMPORTANT THING

by Shelley Pearsall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2015

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Traumatized by his father’s recent death, a boy throws a brick at an old man who collects junk in his neighborhood and winds up on probation working for him.

Pearsall bases the book on a famed real work of folk art, the Throne of the Third Heaven, by James Hampton, a janitor who built his work in a garage in Washington, D.C., from bits of light bulbs, foil, mirrors, wood, bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard—the titular seven most important things. In late 1963, 13-year-old Arthur finds himself looking for junk for Mr. Hampton, who needs help with his artistic masterpiece, begun during World War II. The book focuses on redemption rather than art, as Hampton forgives the fictional Arthur for his crime, getting the boy to participate in his work at first reluctantly, later with love. Arthur struggles with his anger over his father’s death and his mother’s new boyfriend. Readers watch as Arthur transfers much of his love for his father to Mr. Hampton and accepts responsibility for saving the art when it becomes endangered. Written in a homespun style that reflects the simple components of the artwork, the story guides readers along with Arthur to an understanding of the most important things in life.

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)