Marching With Aunt Susan

Marching With Aunt Susan

Written by Claire Rudolf Murphy

Illustrated by Stacey Schuett

Peachtree Publishers, 2011

36 Pages

Historical Fiction

     "Strenuous excercise is not for girls," Bessie's father said. "You're not strong enough," Enie told her. "It's not ladylike," Charlie added. Their words swirled around in Bessie's head as she tried to understand why she couldn't go hiking with her father and brothers. Bessie could ride her bike faster than anyone on the block. The reason couldn't be her strength. It must be because she is a girl. Mama says Aunt Mary will be arriving soon to the suffrage tea party with the guest of honor, Miss Susan B. Anthony. When Bessie meets Aunt Susan, she learns about all the different activities women are allowed to participate in. Aunt Susan invites Bessie to a women's rights rally in San Francisco. Will change come over night? Will Bessie ever get to hike with her brothers? Read Marching With Aunt Susan to hear Bessie's story about women's suffrage.

     The vibrant and detailed illustrations are what captured my interest in this book. Schuett uses gouache on watercolor paper to create her paintings on the cover and throughout the story. In addition, the beginning and ending of the book contain real newspaper clippings, letters, pictures, and postcards from the late 1800's and early 1900's. I love that Murphy and Schuett went to such great lengths as to search for and include primary sources to accurately record the history of women's suffrage.The paintings are lively and apppropriate for the historical fiction storyline of Marching With Aunt Susan, while the unaltered, real pieces of history provide this book with historical validity.

    This story could be used in the classroom for many purposes. In addition to reading comprehension and writing, Marching With Aunt Susan would be a great tool for teaching lessons about voting, women's rights, and Susan B. Anthony. I found many great ideas from the website: http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/8-Final-Summer-2013-MS06529-Troncale.pdf. I love the idea of presenting two choices for students to vote on, such as having recess inside or outside before introducing the book. Then, while passing out ballots, the teacher will explain that only boys will be able to vote. After tallying votes, the teacher would allow students to quickwrite about how the girls felt about not being able to vote and why both genders should have a say. In my own classroom, I would choose to give girls the only right to vote. This way, the boys can better understand what women went through and connect more to the story since it is written from a girl's perspective. A great activity for after reading and discussing Susan B. Anthony's life, is to divide students into groups and allow each group to create a Bio Cube. On the Bio Cube, students would include the acts and contributions of a current woman reformer or activist of their choice. An idea I had after viewing the primary sources placed at the beginning and ending of the book, is to have students create their own political cartoon or slogan in favor of women's rights. Because this book includes a biography of Susan B. Anthony, a timeline of Women's Suffrage, real photographs, headings, newspaper articles, political cartoons, and letters, it could also be a great resource for teaching about nonfiction or informational text features. This book is best suited for grades 2-4.