Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation

Reviewed by: Margy Soule - Coffin Elementary School, Brunswick, Choose Library District

Review Date: October 11, 2017

Review

Ladies of Liberty introduces primary and mid elementary students to a diverse group of American women who lived from the early 1700s through the early 1800s. Nuns, African Americans, Jews, Native Americans, the rich, the poor, famous and not-so-famous all helped shape our country as outlined in these sixteen biographical sketches. Each woman is given two pages, one a general overview, and the second a brief detail about part of her life. Readers are only given a glimpse of each woman and don’t get emotionally close to the women. By the end of the book, however, children will understand that women of all sorts helped form this country. In this case, the book’s whole may be greater than the parts. Cokie Roberts, the National Public Radio commentator, based this book for children upon her earlier work, Founding Mothers. She researched using journals letters, diaries, and other books. Diane Goode’s pen and ink and pastel sketches add greatly to the book’s appeal. Her illustrations give character including humor and strength to these women, and they highlight details presented in the brief two-page biographies.

Overall Book Score: very good