A remarkable true story about harnessing one’s inherent dignity in a hostile world.
A biography inspired by—and presented alongside—a Black woman’s firsthand account of her experiences as a Civil War nurse.
The story opens in Savannah, Georgia, where Susie Baker lives with her grandmother Dolly, who was born enslaved but now manages her own laundry business. Susie’s mother is enslaved on the Grest Farm, but Dolly persuaded Mr. Grest to let Susie and two younger siblings live in the city with her. Susie dreams of freedom and secretly attends a school run by a free Black woman; later she’s tutored by Mrs. Beasley, who teaches her about history, civics, and current events, including the debate over abolition. After Susie and her siblings are sent back to the Grest plantation, her uncle and his family decide to run away to join the Union Army. Susie, now 14, joins them. She works with the Union Army, organizing a laundry business and school and becoming one of the first Black nurses. An epilogue touches upon Susie’s life after the war, including her move to Boston and her work as an advocate for Black children’s education. The confident voice of the first-person narration brings history to life in a thrilling way and will resonate with readers. Taylor’s original memoir, published in 1902, is included in full, allowing readers to juxtapose the two texts.
A remarkable true story about harnessing one’s inherent dignity in a hostile world. (authors’ note, list of troops, list of battles) (Nonfiction. 11-16)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781665919944
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
In this companion to Portraits of War: Civil War Photographers and Their Work (1998), Sullivan presents an album of the prominent ships and men who fought on both sides, matched to an engrossing account of the war's progress: at sea, on the Mississippi, and along the South's well-defended coastline. In his view, the issue never was in doubt, for though the Confederacy fought back with innovative ironclads, sleek blockade runners, well-armed commerce raiders, and sturdy fortifications, from the earliest stages the North was able to seal off, and then take, one major southern port after another. The photos, many of which were made from fragile glass plates whose survival seems near-miraculous, are drawn from private as well as public collections, and some have never been published before. There aren't any action shots, since mid-19th-century photography required very long exposure times, but the author compensates with contemporary prints, plus crisp battle accounts, lucid strategic overviews, and descriptions of the technological developments that, by war's end, gave this country a world-class navy. He also profiles the careers of Matthew Brady and several less well-known photographers, adding another level of interest to a multi-stranded survey. (source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7613-1553-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
After surveying “competing claims” for the first Thanksgiving from 1541 on, in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts, Colman decides in favor of the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first “because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.” She demonstrates, however, that the “Pilgrim and Indian” story is really not the antecedent of Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today. Rather, two very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving for special events—were the origin, and this interesting volume traces how the custom of proclaiming a general day of thanksgiving took hold. Yet, since many Thanksgiving celebrations in towns and schools are still rooted in the “Pilgrim and Indian” story, which the author calls “true and important,” but which many Native Americans find objectionable, a more in-depth discussion of it is warranted here. The solid bibliography does include some fine resources, such as 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. (author’s note, chronology, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8229-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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