Miss Paul and the president The creative campaign for women's right to vote

In 1914, suffragette Alice Paul and her National Woman's Party planned a huge parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to push her cause. At the same time, newly elected President Woodrow Wilson was getting off a train in D.C., expecting a large crowd. But everyone was at the parade! Wilson invited Paul to the White House but told her he had more important problems than the woman's vote. So Paul decided to do what she did as a girl down on the farm: cause trouble. That included laying signature-filled scrolls down the Capitol steps, getting people to send bags of letters to Wilson, and being arrested at the White House. Finally, and with the persuasion of his daughter, Wilson came on board. The story is full of concrete actions and gritty determination; unfortunately, there's no way to know if it's all true. Although there is a short bibliography, the author's note only covers the period after Paul secured Wilson's support. Zhang's lively watercolor and colored-pencil art captures the sense of fun that seems to have been Paul's modus operandi.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2016 Booklist

K-Gr 3-This picture book biography introduces young readers to Alice Paul, the suffragist and women's rights activist. Readers will learn of Paul's fierce efforts to win the right to vote for women, including putting together a parade in Washington, DC, that upstaged the incoming president, Woodrow Wilson; organizing protesters outside the White House; and directly confronting President Wilson on the matter of women's suffrage. The author connects these efforts ("making mischief") to Paul's wild youth, a time when she sneaked candy, chased chickens, and threw mud balls. Watercolor and color pencil illustrations support this spirited view with lively movement and color as she is shown leading a parade of 8,000 women, sitting in President Wilson's office and looking him right in the eye, protesting outside the White House gate, and even being hauled off to jail by the police for refusing to leave the grounds. All of these efforts pay off when Wilson finally decides to support women's right to vote. A final illustration shows the triumphant Paul on her way to vote in the 1920 election. VERDICT This is an engaging introduction to an important and often neglected historical figure. Older readers can find additional information in Ann Bausum's With Courage and Cloth.-Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.