Woelfle, Gretchen. Answering The Cry For Freedom.

Woelfle, Gretchen.  Answering The Cry For Freedom.  Boyd’s Mills/Calkins Creek  2016  238p   $18.95  ISBN 978-1-62979-306-1     ms/jr            Collective biography  E-BN

Thirteen important African American figures who were fighting against slavery at the time of the American Revolution are profiled in this excellent illustrated history book. We meet such colorful characters as Jarena Lee, a house slave who gave up her family and home to travel widely preaching against slavery, Philadelphia’s own Richard Allen, who founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Sally Hemings, who succumbed to Thomas Jefferson’s every whim in exchange for her children’s future freedom.  Each chapter includes dates of birth and death, biographical details, and stories that have come down through the ages about these larger-than-life individuals who paved the way for the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad. The type is large and easy-to-read for middle-school and even elementary students, but the information will appeal to all ages, even adults. There is a lot to learn in these pages.  The book also includes extensive research notes, a good bibliography, citation information, and guides for further research on each freedom fighter.  The illustrations are subtle and enhance the text, done in black-and-white drawings by Gregory Christie.  This one is a must-have for public and school libraries, even those serving older kids, because the information is so compelling and is largely unknown by most readers.     

Summary: Thirteen important African American figures who were fighting against slavery at the time of the American Revolution are profiled in this excellent illustrated history book.      

African Americans                                                                                                      —Carol Kennedy

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 

Woelfle, Gretchen. All The World's A Stage

Woelfle, Gretchen.      All The World's A Stage        

Holiday House           2011   163p   16.95   978-0-8234-2281-4             

ms                               VG-BN 

 This novel of Elizabethan London is presented as a play in five acts.  This fascinating account of this era givesyoung readers a chance to experience life both as a poor orphan and a member of

the theater company with its myriad of tasks and opportunities.  The ╥reality╙of the time is enhanced by the pencil drawings that add to the sense of time and place.               

 Kit Buckles, newly orphaned and now apprenticed to a gang of pickpockets,

is sent to relieve theater patrons of their purses at the Theatre Playhouse. 

Caught in the act, he has to choose between prison and being an unpaid worker

for the Chamberlain╒s Men.  Kit chooses the latter and finds that life as a part

of this company agrees with him.  During the winter of 1598, the ongoing dispute

between the company and their landlord becomes critical.   After they are locked

out, the company makes plans to secretly dismantle the existing theater and

rebuild it again as the Globe on another site along the Thames.  Kit finds his

way in life during this tumultuous period.  He tries his hand at many chores and

discovers friends and companions that suit him from the company╒s apple girl to

Will Shakespeare himself.

 This fascinating account of this era gives young readers a chance to experience

life both as a poor orphan and as a member of the theater company with its

myriad of tasks and opportunities.  The ╥reality╙ of the time is enhanced by the

pencil drawings that add greatly to the sense of time and place.  The book ends

with an author╒s note, a glossary, and a bibliography.  It is sure to lead to

further reading on the topic and, perhaps, a nudge towards the works of

Shakespeare himself.       Ogintz, Susan