Women Heroes of World War I

August 1, 2014

Gr 6 Up-In this collective biography, Atwood chronicles the wartime exploits of 16 distinctive women from the United States, Europe, and Australia. The book is well balanced, covering women from the Central and Allied powers. Content is organized by the type of job the women performed-and there were many: resisters and spies, medical personnel, soldiers, and journalists. Their great contributions are made more vivid with Atwood's engaging narrative. Shepoints out that while there were ideological, social, and economic differences among the women, there was also a commonality uniting them: patriotism. Readers get an idea of the intensity of these women's fervors through the quotes from diaries, letters, and interviews. Gabrielle Petit, a young woman who worked as a spy for Belgium, wrote in a letter, "My country! I did not think enough of it! I almost ignored it. I did not see that I loved her. But since [the enemies] torment her, the monsters, I see her everywhere. I breathe her in the streets of the city, in the shadow of our palace...she lives in me, I live in her. I will die for her singing." Woven throughout the stories is the larger history of the war itself-the causes, battles won and lost, and outcomes. Occasional black-and-white archival photographs, especially those depicting the women, add interest and immediacy.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
Grades 7-10 With the centennial of the start of the Great War upon us, Atwood commemorates 16 brave women who served in a variety of locations and capacities. An introduction provides a unifying theme, expounding upon many people's intense sense of nationalismand misplaced excitementat the outset of the war. The bios are organized into four themes: spies and resisters, medical personnel, journalists, and soldiers. Most fascinating are the stories of Belgian Gabrielle Petit, who fed information to British informants and was executed after refusing to apply for clemency before the Kaiser; Elsie Inglis, a Scottish surgeon who founded a mobile medical unit that would not leave behind wounded soldiers, even when ordered to retreat; and Maria Bochkareva, a founding member of the fierce Russian fighting force known as the Women's Battalion of Death. A fine survey of major events in WWI and a case study in the types of social changes that often occur because of war, this book is an ideal candidate for both research and recreational reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)