A WOMAN FOR PRESIDENT

Krull, whose many gifts include the ability to make a complicated life comprehensible, and Dyer, whose pictorial sweetness does not mask an iron vision, offer the life of the feminist, spiritualist, and activist Victoria Woodhull. In immediately accessible prose, Krull tells Woodhull’s story, from the bitter childhood that she hid as far as possible, through two marriages, wealth, and poverty, championing what women could do—and doing it. She did indeed run for president in 1872, but she also was the first woman to hold a seat on the stock exchange, the first woman to speak before Congress, and the first woman to own a newspaper (she founded it herself). She was also, apparently, a mesmerizing speaker, an elegant dresser wearing her signature white rose, and indefatigable in her many endeavors. This is a gorgeous volume, with Dyer’s full-page, full-bleed watercolors capturing the essentials of the time and place with fine color and detail. Krull, as always, gets it all and makes us want to know more. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 7-12)