One Girl's Voice

November 15, 2024
In 1830s Massachusetts, girls' and women's voices were considered inconsequential. Lucy Stone excelled in school, but when her father decided that she'd had enough education for a girl, she paid her own way through Ohio's Oberlin Collegiate Institute, known for its integrated and co-ed student body. But even at progressive Oberlin, young women weren't treated fairly. When Lucy found out that she was earning half the work study wages that the male students made, she wrote a letter to the administration and refused to work. The school changed its policy, inspiring a determined Lucy to keep speaking up. After graduation, Lucy was hired by the New England Anti-Slavery Society; she toured and spoke at rallies, sometimes facing angry protestors. Lucy's unwavering voice contributed to many important changes, including the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and a law granting property rights to married women. Gibbon's acrylic and colored pencil illustrations are kinetic and angular, depicting a spirited Lucy and her peers in energetic pops of color. Lucy's direct quotations are peppered throughout the illustrations, potentially engaging older readers, though some advanced language may deter the younger, intended audience. All quotes are written in scrawled, difficult-to-decipher cursive hand-lettering. Overall, though, readers should come away inspired by her bold action--and stirred to make change themselves. A passionate ode to a suffragist and abolitionist who should surely be a household name. (author's note, photos, timeline, fun facts, bibliography, picture credits)(Picture-book biography. 6-8)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2024
Grades 3-5 As a child born in 1818, Lucy Stone was struck by the rules that prevailed in Massachusetts, where she lived, and throughout the country. At home, fathers made the decisions, which their wives and children were expected to obey. Determined to set her own course, Stone attended a college that accepted women students, though, even there, women were not allowed to participate in debates. After graduation, she worked for an antislavery organization. As she became more skilled as an orator, she spoke out for women's rights, becoming active in that movement as well. Changes came slowly, but in a series of speaking tours, Stone helped shift people's views on emancipation and on equal rights, particularly voting rights, for all. In Kirkfield's narrative, Stone emerges as a girl who, like many children, understands the importance of fairness. But she also saw the importance of pointing out unjust laws and unfair practices to others. The richly colorful illustrations, created using colored pencil and acrylic ink, will help readers to envision Lucy Stone and her contributions to nineteenth-century America.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.