Dare to Question: Carrie Chapman Catt's Voice for the Vote

by Jasmine A. Stirling, Udayana Lugo (Illustrator)

Overview

Jasmine A. Stirling, author of A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice, delivers a powerful, poetic picture book biography about suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, perfect for fans of I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark and the Rebel Girls series. 
 
As a child, Carrie Chapman Catt asked a lot of questions: How many stars are in the sky? Do germs have personalities? And why can’t Mama vote? Catt’s curiosity led her to college, to a career in journalism, and finally to becoming the president of The National American Woman Suffrage Association. Catt knew the movement needed a change—and she set to work mobilizing women (and men) across the nation to dare to question a woman’s right to vote.

On August 18, 1920, Catt pinned a yellow rose to her dress and waited while lawmakers in Tennessee cast their deciding votes to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. After a seventy-year campaign, had women finally won the right to vote?  
 
Stirling's suspenseful retelling of the dramatic final "yea" that changed the history of women’s rights brings the past to life for young readers. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454934578
Publisher:	Union Square Kids
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Series:	People Who Shaped Our World Series
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	702,499
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.88(h) x (d)
Age Range:	5 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jasmine A. Stirling is a proud voter and advocate for women's rights. She is also the award-winning author of A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice. Jasmine lives in San Francisco with her spouse, two daughters, and their dog. Visit her at jasmineastirling.com.
 
Udayana Lugo would probably be a baker if she weren’t a children’s book illustrator (although waking up before dawn might be a deal-breaker!). She lives in British Columbia, Canada, with her family. Visit her at udayana-lugo.com.

Editorial Reviews

For readers in search of envelope-pushing role models, Carrie Chapman Catt is hard to top, as Stirling demonstrates in this admiring tribute to a woman who led the final charge to the Nineteenth Amendment.” —Booklist (starred review)

“This concise, insightful account allows readers to focus on the salient points of Catt’s work and should inspire them to follow suit and support causes they are passionate about . . . . A captivating, respectful portrait of a dynamic American woman who made history.” —Kirkus Reviews


 

From the Publisher

2023-04-12
Dare to ask questions; dare to demand answers.

As a child, Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) questioned why women couldn’t vote. She became a tireless fighter in the battle for women’s suffrage and marched, made speeches, and traveled around the United States to promote the cause. Eventually, she questioned the movement itself because Black and working-class White women were excluded. Carrie also asked why strategies to attract women to the movement couldn’t be more creative. In New York, she and her romantic partner Mary Garrett Hay galvanized women into bold, exciting action. The First World War proved the turning point: The men of New York state—who voted in favor of women’s suffrage in 1917, after acknowledging they’d filled male jobs when men went to war—and President Woodrow Wilson took note. In 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, granting voting rights to all American women (though the book doesn’t specifically note that many Black women were still deprived of that right for decades, backmatter states that the right to vote “was, and still is, often denied to many U.S. citizens"). This concise, insightful account allows readers to focus on the salient points of Catt’s work and should inspire them to follow suit and support causes they are passionate about. Energetic, humorous visuals are enhanced by varied fonts and playful text placements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A captivating, respectful portrait of a dynamic American woman who made history. (author’s note, about Carrie Chapman Catt, photo) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews