How Women Won the Vote

June 1, 2020

Gr 2-5-Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, this nonfiction picture book shines a light on the women's right to vote initiative of the early 1900s. When American activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met by chance in a London jail in 1909, they formed a strong alliance that would later have a profound impact on the suffragette movement. Over the course of the next decade, the two helped engineer the campaign for a woman's right to vote using protests, "unladylike" boycotts, and an unprecedented parade in Washington, DC, that involved more than 5,000 participants and 250,000 spectators. Bartoletti briefly addresses the racial discrimination Black women (including Ida B. Wells) faced when they tried to join the parade. Historical photographs, letters, and articles are interspersed with Chen's illustrations. A thorough bibliography, a time line, and an index are included. End pages features copies of Paul's correspondence. VERDICT This accessible title warrants shelf space. A solid jumping-off point for students working on reports about the suffragette movement.-Jennifer Knight, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2020
Highlights of the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. in the second decade of the 20th century. When young Americans Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, both white college graduates, met in London in June 1909, they formed a connection that would energize the next 11 years of activism for women's suffrage in the United States. This very compact account encapsulates much of the information in stellar works for somewhat older readers such as Ann Bausum's Of Courage and Cloth (2004) and Winifred Conkling's Votes for Women (2018). Bartoletti recounts the women's experiences in England during 1909, ending with the hunger strike and forced feeding at Holloway prison from which it would take Paul a month to recover. She details the organization of the 1913 parade in Washington for women's suffrage on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, taking care to bring attention to the struggle of black women such as Ida B. Wells to be recognized and included. The author also describes Paul's continued protests and founding of the National Women's Party as suffragists' efforts met with ongoing resistance. Sidebars, captions, and the inclusion of photos and newspaper clippings add informative visual interest along with Chen's clear, unaffected illustrations. Text and pictures convey the conflict and struggle without sensationalism. The inclusion of a photograph of the January 2017 Women's March acknowledges that there is more work to be done. A well-documented, highly condensed introduction with substantial visual appeal. (source notes, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

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Starred review from June 1, 2020
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* Bartoletti recounts the history surrounding the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted some American women the right to vote. She focuses on the activities of Americans Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who first became involved in the British suffragette movement in 1909, gleaning valuable insights into the politics of protest. After returning to the U.S., they worked together to lobby for a constitutional amendment and organized the first Washington, D.C., suffragist parade, held on March 3, 1913. This succinctly written and carefully sourced text offers young readers a glimpse into the struggles required to enact political change. Bartoletti recounts details of picket lines, arrests, hunger strikes, and forced feedings endured by many of the women who participated in the protests. She also acknowledges the prevalent racism of the time, which sometimes prevented African American women, including Ida B. Wells, from participating fully in these activities. Chen's richly hued digital artwork meshes seamlessly with numerous captioned documentary photos, as well as charts, maps, and sidebars. Purples, whites, yellows, and greens predominate, signifying the shades depicted in the suffragists' banners. Featuring generous back matter (including a time line, sources and notes, and further reading), this is an attractive and informative introduction that fills in key details often missing from other accounts of this story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2020
This well-sourced account of the fight for American women's suffrage begins in 1909 at a protest march in London. It was there that Americans Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met after being arrested along with more than one hundred other women. Bartoletti (Terrible Typhoid Mary, rev. 7/15) uses this fateful encounter between Paul and Burns as the catalyst to her narrative about the two leaders and their passionate commitment to their mission, often in the face of violent opposition. The "big idea" of the title -- a massive parade of women in Washington, D.C. -- was organized by Paul and Burns (and others) and held on March 3, 1913 -- the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Getting to that parade, however, Bartoletti first explores Paul's and Burns's training in Great Britain and their work back in America. Parade planning is covered in as much detail as the event's pageantry and drama, highlighting the scope of the project and the organizers' sophisticated approach to winning support and funding; also touched on is the racism faced by Black women suffragists, a topic comprehensively covered in Lifting as We Climb, reviewed on page 115 (see also Finish the Fight on page 113). Paul emerges as a more fully realized subject than Burns, but Bartoletti's emphasis is on their partnership rather than individuals' stories. Chen's tidy, cheery cartoon illustrations -- while sometimes incongruous with the text -- are colorful and well integrated into a lively page design, which includes plenty of black-and-white archival photos and reproductions. A timeline of events preceding 1909 (beginning in 1775), an author's note, extensive notes, and a selected bibliography are appended. Index not seen.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2020
This well-sourced account of the fight for American women's suffrage begins in 1909 at a protest march in London. It was there that Americans Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met after being arrested along with more than one hundred other women. Bartoletti (Terrible Typhoid Mary, rev. 7/15) uses this fateful encounter between Paul and Burns as the catalyst to her narrative about the two leaders and their passionate commitment to their mission, often in the face of violent opposition. The "big idea" of the title -- a massive parade of women in Washington, D.C. -- was organized by Paul and Burns (and others) and held on March 3, 1913 -- the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Getting to that parade, however, Bartoletti first explores Paul's and Burns's training in Great Britain and their work back in America. Parade planning is covered in as much detail as the event's pageantry and drama, highlighting the scope of the project and the organizers' sophisticated approach to winning support and funding; also touched on is the racism faced by Black women suffragists, a topic comprehensively covered in Lifting as We Climb, reviewed on page 115 (see also Finish the Fight on page 113). Paul emerges as a more fully realized subject than Burns, but Bartoletti's emphasis is on their partnership rather than individual's stories. Chen's tidy, cheery cartoon illustrations -- while sometimes incongruous with the text -- are colorful and well integrated into a lively page design, which includes plenty of black-and-white archival photos and reproductions. A timeline of events preceding 1909 (beginning in 1775), an author's note, extensive notes, and a selected bibliography are appended. Index not seen. Kitty Flynn

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023

Gr 2-5-Prefaced by jaunty music, Rustin's crisp, youthful narration invitingly captures the energy of U.S. suffragettes Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, whose fateful London police station meeting in 1909 led to the March 1913 parade of "over five hundred suffragists, nine bands, four mounted brigades, and twenty-six floats...down [DC's] Pennsylvania Avenue." The right to vote for (some) women passed on November 2, 1920; racist poll taxes, literary tests, and violence denied Black voters for decades longer. As Rustin solemnly reminds at the recording's end, the Equal Rights Amendment remains unsigned: "the fight for human equality and true democracy isn't over. There's more work to be done." VERDICT At less than an hour, Bartoletti's condensed history of the 19th Amendment is an excellent introduction for younger listeners, and even more so when paired with the print title enhanced with colorful art by Ziyue Chen, photographs, newspaper headlines, maps, letters, and extensive back matter.

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.