Ladies of Liberty

NPR reporter Cokie Roberts pays homage to the heroic women whose patriotism and sacrifice helped create our nation. Roberts spotlights early influential women--heroines, reformers, and visionaries all--including Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Sacagawea, Eliza Hamilton, and Martha Jefferson. Narrating with vivid insight, bemused wonder, humor, and a soft Southern accent, Roberts sheds a fresh perspective upon the lives of these strong, brave women, who were captivated by America's birth and political intrigue, even amidst personal hardships. A small weakness is the absence of pauses before and after quotations (mostly from letters), which causes some confusion as to what is a quote and what is text. Overall, though, Roberts is an insightful and passionate reader who delights in her subjects' daily lives, triumphs, outrages, and humor. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 7, 2008
In this entertaining follow-up to 2004's Founding Mothers: The Women who Raised Our Nation, Roberts recounts the lives of first ladies, and their associates, from the John and Abigail Adams White House up through Monroe's 1818-1825 term. Though it's well known women at the time couldn't vote or own property, it's surprising how respected, and influential, Roberts's subjects were. As sitting President, Thomas Jefferson "urged all the 'heads of departments' in Washington" to read Mercy Warren's history of the American Revolution, which prompted Alexander Hamilton to declare, "female genius in the United States has outstripped the male." Other intriguing figures include Louisa Catherine Adams, wife to John Quincy, whose story takes her into the court-life of Russia and Austria; the sociable Dolley Payne Madison, known affectionately as "Queen Dolley"; Elizabeth Monroe, a staid (and sickly) return to formality; and a host of children, acquaintances, advisors and socialites (including Federalist Rosalie Stier Calvert and Republican Margaret Bayard Smith, whose letters "often read as a political point counterpoint").While Roberts' aim is to see the period from her subjects' point of view, she is not uncritical; for instance, Roberts casts blame on Mrs. Adams's uncompromising partisanship "in the undoing of her husband." With a little-seen perspective and fascinating insight into the culture of the day, this is popular history done right.

October 10, 2016
Roberts and Goode (Founding Mothers) again adapt one of Roberts’s adult bestsellers into a picture book. Thorough research into letters, diaries, and other writings underpins brief biographies of 10 women who made positive impacts in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Roberts mostly features lesser-known, reform-minded activists—such as Rebecca Gratz, who founded the first U.S. orphanage for Jewish children—but other spotlighted women include Lucy Terry Prince, who composed the first-known poem by an African-American; Native American guide Sacagawea; and First Ladies Louisa Catherine Adams and Elizabeth Kortright Monroe. Short write-ups about other notable women are found in interspersed spreads. While the anecdotes don’t always segue seamlessly, Roberts’s storytelling style is both relaxed and direct. Goode’s softly-hued portraits and vignettes employ curvy, calligraphic lines in sepia that echo handwriting. This collection succeeds in emphasizing that many unsung women, “toiling to make America a more perfect place for all of its people,” left their mark well before the suffrage movement. Ages 6–10. Author’s agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. Illustrator’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

November 1, 2016

Gr 2-5-Using a format similar to Roberts's previous title Founding Mothers, this overview highlights several little-known educators, writers, and reformers who made significant contributions to U.S. history. Some of the women were motivated by religious devotion, while others were influenced by powerful husbands or fathers; still others found themselves in extraordinary circumstances and rose to the occasion. With the exceptions of Sacagawea and Lucy Prince, all of the women featured are white. Goode's illustrations-rendered using quills, sepia-toned brown ink, and watercolors-reflect the historical time period with a fresh energy. Two-page portraits of individuals are interspersed with summary sections comprised of shorter entries. An author's introduction refers to the primary sources used, such as letters and diaries. Readers may pause at a poem that, though indicative of the time period, refers to Native Americans as "awful creatures" and the illustration of two-year-old Charles Adams (son of Louisa and John Quincy Adams) dressed as a "Native American chief" in a feathered headdress for a "fancy ball" when the family was living in Russia. VERDICT For libraries where Roberts's other books have been popular, this follow-up offers comparable fare.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2016
Highlighting women writers, educators, and reformers from the 18th and early 19th centuries, Roberts brings a group of women, many not so well-known, into focus and provides a new perspective on the early history of the United States in this picture-book version of her adult book of the same title (2008).The women include Lucy Terry Prince, a persuasive speaker who created the first poem (an oral piece not written down for over 100 years after its creation) by an African-American; Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first American-born saint and the founder of Catholic institutions including schools, hospitals, and orphanages; and Rebecca Gratz, a young philanthropist who started many organizations to help the Jewish community in Philadelphia. The author usually uses some quotes from primary-source materials and enlivens her text with descriptive events, such as Meriweather Lewis' citation of Sacagawea's "equal fortitude" with the males of the exploration party during a storm, saving many supplies when their boat capsized. The sepia-hued pen-and-ink drawings are inspired by the letters of the era, and the soft watercolor portraits of the women and the paintings that reveal more of their stories are traditional in feeling. In her introduction, the author emphasizes the importance of historical materials, such as letters, organizational records, journals, and books written at the time. Despite this, there is no bibliography or other means of sourcing quoted material. These short pieces may start young people on the search for more information about these intriguing figures. (Informational picture book. 8-11)

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November 15, 2016
Grades 1-4 As she did in Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies (2004), a picture-book adaption of an adult best-seller, celebrated political commentator Roberts now adapts her Ladies of Liberty (2008). She teams up again with illustrator Goode to offer condensed portraits of influential women active during the half-centuries flanking the American Revolution. The war, she observes, offered the solidarity of fighting a common enemy, but once the original thirteen states were on their own . . . the arguments started. The biographical sketches, while not cohesive as a whole, offer brief, quirky glimpses of women trying in whatever ways they could to address the social issues of their day, among them the reflexive belittling of women's roles. Goode's depictions, lavished with sepia curlicues, lend a welcome levity and a certain grace to these stories of stubborn struggle, and the book as a whole is a worthwhile tool when it comes to introducing feminism to young minds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)