How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Ziyue Chen (Illustrator)

Overview

This is how history should be told to kids—with photos, illustrations, and captivating storytelling.

From Newbery Honor medalist Susan Campbell Bartoletti and in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in America comes the page-turning, stunningly illustrated, and tirelessly researched story of the little-known DC Women’s March of 1913.

Bartoletti spins a story like few others—deftly taking readers by the hand and introducing them to suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. Paul and Burns met in a London jail and fought their way through hunger strikes, jail time, and much more to win a long, difficult victory for America and its women.

Includes extensive back matter and dozens of archival images to evoke the time period between 1909 and 1920.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062841308
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the acclaimed author of many award-winning nonfiction books, including the Newbery Honor winner Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow, the Sibert Medal winner Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, and Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America. Susan makes her home in Pennsylvania. Visit her online at www.scbartoletti.com.

Ziyue Chen has illustrated several picture books, including When I Carried You in My Belly, Just Right Family: An Adoption Story, Enough!, and Mela and the Elephant. When not illustrating, Ziyue enjoys reading, swimming, and spending time with her loved ones in her homeland, Singapore. Visit her online at www.ziyuechen.com.

Editorial Reviews

"This accessible title warrants shelf space. A solid jumping-off point for students working on reports about the suffragette movement." — School Library Journal

"This succinctly written and carefully sourced text offers young readers a glimpse into the struggles required to enact political change...Chen's richly hued digital artwork meshes seamlessly with numerous captioned documentary photos...This is an attractive and informative introduction that fills in key details often missing from other accounts of this story." — Booklist (starred review)

"Sidebars, captions, and the inclusion of photos and newspaper clippings add informative visual interest...[and] 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." — Kirkus Reviews

"[O]ffers an engaging and nuanced view of the movement...and comes far closer to providing the multigenerational, multiracial and, very often, racist bigger picture." — New York Times Book Review

"[T]imely history of voter suppression...To its credit, this candid account does not skirt irony — that in fighting gender discrimination, parade organizers themselves practice racial discrimination, at first barring black women from participation...Thus, the suffrage movement is shown to be both regressive and progressive, underscoring a persistent contradiction perhaps central to understanding our American story." — San Francisco Chronicle

"[W]ell-sourced account of the fight for American women's suffrage. A timeline of events preceding 1909 (beginning in 1775), an author’s note, extensive notes, and a selected bibliography are appended." — Horn Book Magazine

"Bartoletti tells the story of the final push towards the 19th Amendment with verve...while illustrator Ziyue Chen captures the feeling of the early 20th century. [T]his fascinating book...is the perfect introduction to the Suffrage Movement for young readers! — A Mighty Girl blog 

"This is how a good history lesson should be presented."  — Booklist

From the Publisher

"[T]imely history of voter suppression...To its credit, this candid account does not skirt irony — that in fighting gender discrimination, parade organizers themselves practice racial discrimination, at first barring black women from participation...Thus, the suffrage movement is shown to be both regressive and progressive, underscoring a persistent contradiction perhaps central to understanding our American story."

San Francisco Chronicle

"[W]ell-sourced account of the fight for American women's suffrage. A timeline of events preceding 1909 (beginning in 1775), an author’s note, extensive notes, and a selected bibliography are appended."

Horn Book Magazine

"This succinctly written and carefully sourced text offers young readers a glimpse into the struggles required to enact political change...Chen's richly hued digital artwork meshes seamlessly with numerous captioned documentary photos...This is an attractive and informative introduction that fills in key details often missing from other accounts of this story."

Booklist (starred review)

06/01/2020

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

School Library Journal

2020-03-01
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)

Kirkus Reviews

"Bartoletti tells the story of the final push towards the 19th Amendment with verve...while illustrator Ziyue Chen captures the feeling of the early 20th century. [T]his fascinating book...is the perfect introduction to the Suffrage Movement for young readers!

A Mighty Girl blog 

"[O]ffers an engaging and nuanced view of the movement...and comes far closer to providing the multigenerational, multiracial and, very often, racist bigger picture."

New York Times Book Review

"This is how a good history lesson should be presented." 

Booklist

"This is how a good history lesson should be presented." 

Booklist

Patriotic fife and drum music introduces young listeners to this account of how suffragettes Alice Paul and Lucy Burns joined forces to help women win the vote. Sandy Rustin conveys their bitter, sometimes violent story in a mild-mannered voice that belies the women’s radical rebelliousness. Beginning with their first meeting in England in 1909, and moving to the 1913 parade in Washington, and finally to the 1920 presidential election, when women were able to vote for the first time, this well-researched audiobook documents the long, difficult victory for the women who endured arrests, prison time, and hunger strikes in order to achieve their goal. But the lack of sensationalism in Rustin’s voice clearly demonstrates that the women were peaceful protesters, not “hysterical” or “unladylike,” as deemed by their detractors. S.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2020 - AudioFile

Patriotic fife and drum music introduces young listeners to this account of how suffragettes Alice Paul and Lucy Burns joined forces to help women win the vote. Sandy Rustin conveys their bitter, sometimes violent story in a mild-mannered voice that belies the women’s radical rebelliousness. Beginning with their first meeting in England in 1909, and moving to the 1913 parade in Washington, and finally to the 1920 presidential election, when women were able to vote for the first time, this well-researched audiobook documents the long, difficult victory for the women who endured arrests, prison time, and hunger strikes in order to achieve their goal. But the lack of sensationalism in Rustin’s voice clearly demonstrates that the women were peaceful protesters, not “hysterical” or “unladylike,” as deemed by their detractors. S.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2020 - AudioFile