Susan B. Anthony

Gr. 2-4. The life and times of Anthony get a brisk treatment in this book in the Ready-to-Read: Stories of America series, but new readers will still gain familiarity with one of the mothers of the feminist movement. Hopkinson gets right into it: Anthony wanted to reform or change America. The book then moves on to one of the pivotal moments in young Anthony's life: her father's refusal to promote a young woman in his mill--even though she was the most qualified worker. The text rolls quickly through her work as an abolitionist and her segue, along with her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, into her tireless efforts for woman's suffrage. The disappointment that came when African American men received the vote before women comes through even in this short account, as does the seemingly endless wait until the Nineteenth Amendment passed in 1920. Browns, tans, and blues predominate in the watercolours and tend to flatten the action, but the pictures carry nicely across the spreads, and Anthony is portrayed as a formidable figure, even when young. Ilene Cooper
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