Such a fascinating and inspiring story. ( )

My fourth graders were fascinated by the life of this woman who believed so passionately in equal rights that she put her name on the presidential ballot almost 50 years before women could even legally vote. Kathleen Krull does a wonderful job of making life stories of little-known heroes accessible to kids. ( )

3Q, 3P

The illustrations are beautiful watercolors that realistically depict the time, use the space well, and are the visual focus on most pages, mainly being double-page spreads. The figure chosen is important, and her story needs to be told as this history is often ignored. However, the author falls into the trap of early children's biography writers by presenting her subject as more virtuous than everyone else, heroic without flaws. The strength of the book is its depiction of sexism at the time-- although it does not comment on life being different for women based on race, class, and other social identities.

Summary: Victoria Woodhull had a hard life with many ups and downs. She earns fortunes and looses them, marries and divorces. But she makes bold moves and always ends up on top. She ran for president when women weren't even aloud to vote. She was dashing and impressive, and in the end turned out all right, not president, but wealthy

Genre: this is a biography because it is a story about a woman told by a different author. this woman was a real person that existed before our time.

Theme: Equality was not available for Victoria, but it has been envisioned far before our time. It is possible to believe in things and try for them even if we know it is not possible, at least it gets our point out there. Keep trying no matter what the adversity is. Never give up.

Media: watercolor ( )

An interesting perspective. We don't hear much about women in history before the 1960's or later. It's nice knowing there were women who fought for women's rights and that it was a long process. She has an interesting background story. Could be used as a biography unit for students. ( )