Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote
Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Henry Holt and Co., 2008 ISBN: 978-0805079036
Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in a world where girls were not considered as good as boys. They were not valued the way boys were, and when they grew up they had no rights to protect them. They could not vote, they could not own property, they did not have a voice, and to make matters worse women could not do anything about the unfair laws because only men were allowed to change the laws. The whole situation made Elizabeth furious and she was determined to do the things she cared about even if the men in her world did not always approve.
When she was a young woman Elizabeth married Henry Stanton, a young man who was a staunch believer that all Americans deserved to have equal rights and freedoms under the law.
Elizabeth took on the role of wife and mother with zeal. She also began to meet with ladies who believed that women deserved to have the same rights as men. One day Elizabeth and her friends decided to hold a meeting. During the meeting they would discuss the many things "that needed to be set straight." More than anything the women saw that their sex needed to have the vote. Only then would they have the ability to change the unfair laws of the land.
This book will provide young readers with an excellent introduction to the life and work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The text is easy to follow, and the ideas mentioned are carefully explained. Short sentences and paragraphs make the material accessible even to young children, and the folkloric style art compliments the texts beautifully.
