Woelfle, Gretchen. Write On, Mercy!

Woelfle, Gretchen.  Write On, Mercy!  Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek  unp  $16.95  978-1-59078-822-6        elem      E-BNe   Biography  

Mercy Otis Warren was an exceptional woman.  Born outside Boston in the eighteenth century to a prosperous lawyer and member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, she was educated equally as well as her older brother Jemmy.  After she married James Warren, she continued to write poetry while raising their five sons.  When the call for revolution began, she took an active part in the political discussions that were held in her home.  After her brother was severely injured in a Loyalist attack, she became the unsigned author of many political plays and writings that circulated through the Boston area.  After the war she began her most ambitious project, a three-volume history of the American Revolution.

This picture-book biography about one of the lesser-known women of the Revolutionary era will open young readers’ eyes to the unusual life of Warren.  A highly educated writer in a time when women were supposed to care only for family and home, she was an active participant in the war effort.  Woelfle’s lively and informative narrative holds the reader’s interest, and the lovely gouache paintings are true to the styles of the time.  The book is enhanced by excerpts from Warren’s writings and ends with an author’s note, a reproduction of her portrait done by John Singleton Copley, a timeline, and a bibliography of books and web sites.  This is a highly recommended purchase for elementary-level libraries.                                                        -- Susan Ogintz