In 1861, just prior to the American Civil War, Harriet Jacobs published a famous slave narrative – of her life in slavery and her arduous escape. Two years earlier, in 1859, Harriet Wilson published an autobiographical novel, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, tracing her life as “free black” farm servant in New England.
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I have to admit, that Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe? is the first I've read in the Who Was ... ? series. When I first began receiving them a year or so ago, I thought that kids would be turned off by the caricature cover art. I was wrong. They have been quite popular for biography assignments. One reason is because Grosset & Dunlap (Penguin) was smart enough to make them each about 100 pages long. (Teachers, I do wish you would be less strict with page counts, particularly in nonfiction. Kids miss out on a lot of great books because they're trying to reach that magic number.)
In any case, I am pleased to see that the latest entry into the Who Was? series is writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her book Uncle Tom's Cabin, or for being, as President Lincoln said, "the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."
Rau, Dana Meachen. 2015. Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe? New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
The first chapter bears the title of the book, "Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe?" and gives a very brief synopsis of her life and its impact on history. Other chapters elaborate on her personal life and her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Today's young readers should find it fascinating that in an age before telephones, radios, televisions and computers, the publication of this one book made Harriet Beecher Stowe a wealthy and well-known celebrity in the U.S. and Europe, and it helped bring about the end of slavery by changing public opinion.
The book is illustrated with black and white drawings, and also contains several double-spread illustrations featuring background information that is necessary to gain an understanding of the era. These inset illustrations explain The Famous Beecher Family, The Underground Railroad, The Congregational Church, and Frederick Douglass.
The story of Harriet Beecher Stowe is a perfect illustration of the power of the pen. Hopefully, it will inspire young readers to seek out a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the future.
Rounding out the book are time lines and a bibliography.
Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe? will be on a shelf near you on 4/21/15. My copy was provided by the publisher.
As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to look back and see which words have been significant throughout the past twelve months, and to announce the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. Without further ado, we can reveal that the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 is…
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Smiling face? Grimacing face? Speak-No-Evil Monkey? With the announcement of emoji as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year, we asked a number of scholars for their thoughts on this new word and emerging linguistic phenomenon.
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Oxford Dictionaries has selected emoji as Word of the Year 2015, so we asked several experts to comment on the role that emojis play in language. Emojis originated as a way to guide the interpretation of digital texts, to replace some of the clues we get in ordinary speech or writing that help us understand […]
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