A Voice from the Wilderness

September 17, 2001
Focusing on another intrepid woman from the past, Brown (Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa; Ruth Law Thrills a Nation) offers an anecdotal account of the life of Shaw, who is perhaps best known for her work as a suffragette. Her family emigrates to the U.S. from England in the mid-19th century and settles in Massachusetts. Yet Anna's father "believed a better life awaited the family in the West"; he and his son James travel to the wilds of Michigan to build a rudimentary cabin, which Anna and her siblings later make habitable. Weaving into his narrative Shaw's words from her 1915 autobiography, Brown explains how she takes charge after her father and James return east; she digs a well, plants crops, etc. As a young woman, she works as a teacher and seamstress, enrolls in college and later becomes a minister, then a doctor—careers that Brown notes women "were discouraged from entering at the time." A concluding author's note fleshes out Shaw's story, while—ironically—emphasizing certain events more than those covered in the chronicle. Most notably, the narrative's minimal mention of Shaw's work for the women's suffrage movement does little to support the idea of these efforts as "her life's work," as Brown describes them in his afterword. Ultimately, this intriguing portrait of a true pioneer, with softly focused pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations that underscore the barren Michigan landscape, may well ignite further reading on Shaw. Ages 4-8.

September 1, 2001
Gr 1-4-Brown hones in on a little-known figure. The book focuses on Shaw's tumultuous childhood and young adulthood marked by her long, stormy journey from England to Massachusetts in 1851, hardscrabble pioneering days in the Michigan woods when she was 12, self-education, and college and medical school. The fact that she was a trailblazer for women's rights is only brought to light near the end of the volume. Full-page, at times cartoonlike, pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations are pleasing to the eye. One spread, showing Anna and her brother planting and fishing, is particularly touching. Another, awash in blue, reveals perfectly her mother's despair at attempting pioneer life with young children and an absent husband. Most of the information for this text comes from Shaw's autobiography, written in 1915. Because of the relative obscurity of the subject, this title might be overlooked on library shelves but it would be suited for classroom reading. An attractive and readable selection.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2001
Ages 6-8. The author of " Uncommon Traveler: "Mary Kingsley in Africa (2000), Brown works his alchemy on an absorbing story of a woman almost unknown. Anna Howard Shaw crossed the Atlantic, lived in Massachusetts and then in the wilds of Michigan, carving out a wilderness life with her mother and siblings while her father and her older brothers worked back East. Self-taught, she became a schoolteacher at age 15, and later earned a college degree in theology. What she preached was women's right to vote, which became law just after her death in 1919. Brown illuminates character with fine, sure, simple strokes, and the softness of his signature watercolors effectively mitigate the reality of a hard life lived with strength and purpose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)