A Time for Courage

Title:  A Time for Courage
Author:  Kathryn Lasky
Target Audience:  Upper Elementary
Independent Reading Level:  5th grade
Setting:  Washington, DC 1917, Women's Suffragette Movement and WWI

Summary:  Kathleen Bowen is given a diary by her mother for Christmas.  At first, she thinks her life is too boring to write about.  But as women petition and picket to gain the right to vote and America enters the Great War, she soon finds quite a bit to write about in her life and that of her family. 

Review:  Kathleen is like most girls her age.  As she writes, she worries about school, her mother's participation in the movement for women's right to vote, and the possibility of her father's going to war.  Kathleen's character is dynamic--by the end of the book, she is more focused on others than at the beginning of the book.  More focus is given to the women's suffrage movement than to the war, but some people Kathleen knows are involved in helping wounded soldiers and that part of the war is described.  As with the other books in the Dear America series, a historical note and pictures are included at the end of the book describing actual events and people of the time.  Also, the book is interesting as well as educational.
**** 4 stars