6.24.2013

Louisa May's Battle


How the Civil War 
Led to Little Women


This post joins other Nonfiction Monday blogs hosted today
by Playing by the book
and joins It's Monday!
What are you reading?

Walker Books for Young Readers
(Bloomsbury)
(pub. 3.5.2013) 48 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Kathleen Krull
     and Illustrator:  Carlyn Beccia

haracter: Louisa May Alcott

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Louisa May Alcott was a proper young lady from a poor but respected New England family. The Alcotts believed that slavery was wrong and even worked as part of the Underground Railroad. So when the Civil War started, Louisa longed to fight for the North. But since she wasn't a man, she did what she could - she volunteered as a war nurse.
       Everything about this experience opened Louisa's eyes to new possibilities: from the long and difficult journey to Washington DC to caring fro the young injured soldiers and witnessing the treatment of the African American staff. Louisa returned from the war a very different person, and these changes led her to develop a new writing style and outlook that ultimately led to her greatest writing triumph, Little Women."

T antalizing taste: 

    "Any spare minute she had, she wrote home, letters full of snap and bite, using an upside-down teakettle as a desk. She chatted about her soldiers - and also about the chaos at the hospital, or the doctor who had trouble treating his patients as human beings...
     Being a war veteran was the key to all that she accomplished: 'My greatest pride is... that I had a very small share in the war which put an end to a great wrong.'"

and something more: I liked the description in the Women in Medicine section of Louisa May's Battle: "Most of the women in medicine were also active in fighting for equal rights for women - including Alcott, who took to signing her letters, 'Yours for reform of all kinds.'"  What a lovely way to sign one's name!

9 comments:

Beth said...

This sounds like an interesting biography of Alcott.

Jeff Barger said...

What a great gateway to Little Women! This is the second biography I have read this year that relates to women serving in the Civil War. Thanks for sharing.

Jeanne Walker Harvey said...

Thanks Beth for stopping by. Yes, I think you'll find this picture book biography shares an interesting perspective of Louise May Alcott's life.

Jeanne Walker Harvey said...

Hi Jeff! Yes, I too was drawn to this book because I had just reviewed MARY WALKER WEARS THE PANTS, also set during the Civil War.

Kathleen Krull said...

Thanks so much, Jeanne. Yes, I was looking for something new & different to say about LMA, & I for one hadn't known about her work in the Civil War.

Cathy Ballou Mealey said...

I saw Carlyn Beccia present a wonderful Corel online workshop that featured the creation of illustrations for this book, so I was eager to read it. Wonderful resource about so many topics: nursing, war, and the wonderful writing of Miss Louisa!

Ricki Ginsberg at Unleashing Readers said...

Thanks for the tantalizing taste. This review definitely makes me want to go out and buy this one!

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