Kirkus Reviews

In lively prose well-matched by Gibbon's irrepressible images, Stone tells the story of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The breezy narrative visits Elizabeth at key moments in her youth: when she wondered why a visitor expressed regret that her baby sister was a girl; when she learned a widow would lose the farm she had worked on her whole life because her husband died and women couldn't own property; when she begged to continue her education. She married the abolitionist Henry Stanton, but kept her name along with his. A meeting with Lucretia Mott and other strong, like-minded women led to a much larger gathering at Seneca Falls, N.Y. There began the long battle—the end of which Elizabeth did not live to see—to win the right to vote. Gibbon uses pattern and line on white backgrounds to set off her figures and exaggerated gestures and expressions to give them energy. A fine introduction for very young readers to the woman and her key role in American history. (author's note, sources) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Starred Review Most young people will be unfamiliar with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and what she accomplished. Stone goes a long way toward correcting that, wisely beginning with a pithy introduction that links the life of women in the early nineteenth century with that of readers today: "What would you do if someone told you you can't be what you want to be because you are a girl? . . . your voice doesn't matter? Would you fight for your rights? Elizabeth did." What follows is a short, incisive biography covering some of the high points of Stanton's life, beginning with her shocking realization about how unfairly the law treated women, which translated into Stanton's lifelong work for women's suffrage. In shorts text bites, Stone explains how Stanton met her abolitionist husband (and refused to give up her name), the origins of the women's rights movement, and the effect of the Women's Rights Conference in Seneca Falls, New York. This focus works well for the audience, though the brevity leaves some holes. Susan B. Anthony, for instance, is pictured, though unnamed. The child-pleasing artwork features characters a bit reminiscent of clothespin dolls, but the cameos of action, matched by full-page pictures, make the history accessible. A must for library shelves.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Beginning with a direct address—“What would you do if someone told you.../ your voice doesn't matter/ because you are a girl?”—Stone (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Amelia Earhart) fires up readers with a portrait of the 19th-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Four-year-old Elizabeth takes umbrage when a visitor sees her baby sister and clucks, “What a pity it is she's a girl!” Later Elizabeth reads Greek and jumps horses, like contemporary boys, and continues to bristle at injustice. Readers will follow this strong-minded heroine into her adult years, her work as an abolitionist, and her historic role as an activist and visionary. While not a detailed biography or an overview of the women's suffrage movement, this inviting story nevertheless offers a good jumping-off point. The sometimes informational tone is animated and energized by Gibbon's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Players in Pigtails) plentiful vignettes and paintings, rendered in a vibrant folk-art style. Ages 6–10. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(May)

Horn Book (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Stone's easy-to-read text sets the nineteenth-century stage for modern readers: "What would you do if someone told you you can't be what you want to be because you are a girl?" Gibbon's folksy illustrations emphasize the traditional roles of women and the groundswell of people demanding change. An author's note adds detail to Stanton's life and outlines the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Bib.

School Library Journal (Thu May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Gr 1-4 Stone looks at the life of Stanton from childhood to her emergence as a pioneering leader of women's rights. The "strong-spirited, rule-breaking" girl asserted her independence by embracing physical and academic challenges and by questioning traditional viewpoints. This comes through in energetic, lucid prose that focuses on Elizabeth's ideas and feelings rather than on specific events. By consistently sticking to the subject's own experiences, without detours into historical details or even any dates, the author introduces a historical figure whom readers can relate to as a person. Excellent gouache and colored pencil illustrations, rendered in a lighthearted folk-art style, provide rich background for the brief text. They establish the time period through visual details and capture Stanton's spirit and the attitudes of those she encounters without overstatement. The book culminates with the event that propelled the woman into the national spotlight: her presentation at a convention in Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848, of the Declaration of Right and Sentiments, which included a call for women's voting rights. "Elizabeth had tossed a stone in the water and the ripples grew wider and wider and wider." An author's note briefly covers Stanton's subsequent accomplishments. Through words and pictures that work together and an emphasis on ideas and personality rather than factoids, this well-conceived introduction is just right for a young audience. Steven Engelfried, Multnomah County Library, OR