A LONG WAY TO GO

In 1917, when opinion--including the President's--is finally being transformed to make women's suffrage a reality, ten-year-old Lila changes her father's mind on this important issue with an impassioned plea. Lila's parents are conventionally conservative, but--to their embarrassment--Grandmama has gone to jail for picketing the White House. Still, Lila is an independent thinker; visiting the home of the family's maid, Katie Rose, she bucks tradition by persuading Katie's brother to let her hawk papers and then sells out by dramatizing the suffragists' cause. Now fully on Grandmama's side, Lila challenges Papa's opposition and wins permission to take part in a suffrage parade up New York's Fifth Avenue. This simple, purposive story in the new ""Once Upon America"" series is saved from pedantry by the author's telling detail and deft, if abbreviated, characterization. A revealing picture of a pivotal time in the development of women's fights. Historical note.