Susan B. Anthony (The Making of America #4)
by Teri Kanefield
Abrams Books for Young Readers (March 26, 2019)
Nonfiction * Biography * Women’s Rights
Audience: Ages 10 to 14
Indiebound | Worldcat
Description from GoodReads:
In the fourth installment in the Making of America series, Susan B. Anthony, Teri Kanefield examines the life of America’s famous suffragette. Anthony was born into a world in which men ruled women: A man could beat his wife, take her earnings, have her committed into an asylum based on his word, and take her children away from her. While the young nation was ablaze with the radical notion that people could govern themselves, “people” were understood to be white and male. Women were expected to stay out of public life and debates. As Anthony saw the situation, “Women’s subsistence is in the hands of men, and most arbitrarily and unjustly does he exercise his consequent power.” She began her public career as a radical abolitionist, and after the Civil War, she became an international figurehead of the women’s suffrage movement. The book includes selections of Anthony’s writing, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.
Quick thoughts on the book:
I remember the first biography I read about Susan B. Anthony. I was in high school and I was wandering around the adult biography section. I started first with a biography on Elizabeth Cady Staton and then proceed to one on Susan B. Anthony. Don’t ask me the names of either of these books I don’t remember. What I do remember is where the books were located and that they both seemed incredibly old. My small hometown library didn’t have a large collection at the time and nothing seemed particularly current. I am pretty sure both books were missing book jackets too. Despite the age of the books, I remember being incredibly struck by the lives of these two women.
Let’s fast forward to 2016…I was so thrilled to finally be able to vote for a woman for president. I imagined how excited Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists would have felt to not only be able to vote but to vote for a woman. And then everything fell apart. In the past two years, I feel like on the one hand we have made incredible strides with the number of women elected to Congress in 2018 and on the other hand, I am saddened by how we are still fighting for the equal rights of women.
“Men their rights, nothing more; women their rights, nothing less.” - Susan B. Anthony
I hadn’t gotten through the prologue of Kanefield’s latest book and I was already fighting emotions and frustration. Haven’t we learned anything in the past 150 years? We are still fighting for women’s rights. We are still on some level fighting for equal access to voting for all citizens.
Susan B. Anthony is the fourth book in the Making of America series by Teri Kanefield. Within the pages of this middle grade biography, readers will discover how Anthony’s upbringing and personality and experiences came together to lead her on a journey for justice and the end of oppression of women. Hopefully, readers will also recognize the work and effort of those who came before us, particularly Anthony, so that we even have the rights we have while we continue to move forward.
The end of the book contains an author note, notes, timelines, selected writings of Susan B. Anthony, and bibliography.
Look for this book at your local indie bookstore or community library.
About the author: Teri Kanefield is a lawyer and the author of The Girl from the Tar Paper School, The Extraordinary Suzy Wright, The Making of America series, and more. She lives in San Luis Obispo, California. Her blog, Musing About Law, Books, and Politics, is a worthwhile read if you are looking for reflections on current day politics.
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