I received this book for free from the publisher (Viking Children’s Books) in exchange for an honest review.

Prior to reading this book I knew quite a bit about the suffrage movement in the US. I had read Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis when I was in college and that book went into great detail about the complexity of the movement.

What I loved about this book was that it did not shy away from discussing Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s racism nor did it try to justify it. The author writes, “To justify her racism as simply ‘commonplace’ for her time ignores the fact that there was nothing commonplace about her at all. Stanton, one of the true heroes of this story, was deeply flawed and sadly wrong when it came to matters of race” (63-64).

Sprinkled throughout the book are little sidebars with biographies of key women and other facts pertaining to the movement. I found these to be incredibly insightful and helpful in explaining the movement.

This book is middle-grade (the recommended age is 10 and up) and I think it did a great job describing the history of the suffrage movement in an easy-to-follow way. Everything was explained in kid friendly language, so this book is perfect for the intended age group.

Overall, this book is a perfect introduction to the women’s suffrage movement that doesn’t sugar coat the truth.

The story of the suffragettes and how American women finally got the vote - including women we never hear about in history books, and schisms in the movement. Perhaps the most moving thing for me was the foreword and the intro, talking about how this book is about the things that never made it into the history books. It also came on the coat-tails of an 8th grade Social Studies teacher telling me of an earnest 8th grade (white) girl who said that she was sure the founding fathers did mean for all men were created equal to include women and blacks, etc. (Seriously girl???) Anyway, lots of information about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and how they were followed by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to get women the right to vote. Additional information about women not often heard of such as Matilda Joslyn Gage, the Grimke sisters, Amelia Bloomer, Carrie Chapman Catt, etc. Also a shout-out to Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth for their work. Interesting and important. I did not like how the text boxes for the notes about other people interrupted the story line but not sure where you would otherwise put them.

Susan B. Anthony, Ida Wells, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth are just a few of the women who fought long and hard for the right to vote. They were arrested, jailed, and, sometimes, tortured but did not back down. This was a wonderful book on the history of the feminist push for the right to vote but also the racism that broke apart the movement in America. A few of England's suffragettes were mentioned but it was focused almost exclusively on the fight for the vote in America.