For transparency, I was given details about this book when it was still early in its planning stages. I backed the Kickstarter, and I was given an advanced look of some of the pages before it went to print.
For more than 10 years, I have taught American women's history, which has always included an academic journey through the Suffrage Movement. Good Girls... is a much-needed and appreciated addition to the bank of resources I have to help students understand the fraught and often violent circumstances that led to women's suffrage. It's a long and complex history, which has often been distilled to a sprinkling of prominent white women.
The graphic novel, beautifully illustrated by Micaela Dawn and Mary Sanche, begins in a contemporary time. A mother and daughter (Ava) wait in a long line in order for the mother to cast a ballot. While Ava, somewhat petulantly, bemoans waiting, her mother insists that this is not waiting but doing; it's democracy in action. The reader swiftly is transported to 1840 and the World Anti-Slavery Convention, leading us to feel that Ava's mother is telling the story of how it all began.
Throughout the book, we bounce between the timelines, making present the events of the past. In the contemporary timeline, other women beyond Ava and her mother discuss suffrage and the institutional impediments that continue to restrict voting rights in the United States of America. The contemporary passages feature diverse and clearly intersectional characters.
The historic sections are not quite as encompassing. Kiehner and Coyle include prominent African Americans involved in the movement: Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Francis Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Bettiola Heloise Fortson, Mary E. Jackson, Mary Church Terrell, and Juno Frankie Pierce. Their visibility here is important, and it's clear that these women, and thousands of others like them, were excluded from the major suffrage organizations and events because of racism.
While I appreciate that there are only so many pages available, I am missing the stories of the Chicana women, like Aurora Lucero and Nina Otero-Warren, who campaigned all over the American West for a national amendment and the necessity of Spanish bilingualism in suffrage-related campaign materials. I am missing the stories of the garment workers, many of them immigrants or first generation Americans, who joined the suffrage movement strategically to create labor laws that would ensure safe working conditions - especially important after the public tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. I am missing the voices of Indigenous women, like Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin and Zitkala-Sa, who participated in suffrage events while they advocated broadly for Indigenous Rights. (It is important for me to note that there is explicit mention of how early suffragists like Mott learned about Haudenosaunee communities and their egalitarian political infrastructures.)
I know there are too many stories to tell, and many of them don't support the cohesive storyline that's been developed over time. I think Good Girls... is a step in a better, more inclusive direction. The authors and illustrators have been thoughtful and careful in their representations. Nothing is ever painted in rose-colors for the sake of hiding how messy and sometimes destructive the movement was. The conversations between the sections about the past and those in the now are so important; the work is never done. And, those pages depicting contemporary public protests for women's rights make it clear that women of all ages can and should participate in social resistance when injustice persists.
I look forward to using this book in my women's studies classes. It will work wonderfully next to the primary source texts written by many of the women mentioned in the book. I can fill in the gaps for other stories while students get a broad overview of nearly 100 years of history. It'll work great next to something like Katja von Garnier's film Iron Jawed Angels, which focuses on the last 20 years of the movement.
I also will be gifting copies of this to my scholar friends who have interests in women's history and/or graphic novels. The format of the book is so accessible, the illustrations are beautiful, and the prose is clear and purposeful. It's appropriate for children who are learning about civics (I recall learning about Lucretia Mott in 4th grade) and can be an important resource for high schoolers who may feel anxious or apathetic about voting.
In short, I think Good Girls Don't Make History is a fantastic book, and I look forward to sharing it with my students and my friends.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
This item: Good Girls Don't Make History
$2.89
Get it Jul 31 - Aug 2
Only 12 left in stock - order soon.
+
$8.99
Get it as soon as Friday, Aug 2
In Stock
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Reviews with images
Needs Improvement
As a middle school teacher I am all too aware of the fact that many of today’s youth want to read graphic novels instead of paragraph and chapter based books. I applaud the topic of the suffrage movement in the USA for a book for youth. I love graphic novels and nonfiction books that are done well. This is a unique book regarding the subject material and the graphic format.However, first you need to know that this is mixed with historical fiction because some of the people and their conversations are made up. Secondly this is a heavy text graphic novel, similar to the book RGB. Ideally, in a graphic type book, the illustrations are used to convey some of the meaning or emotion in the story. With a high quality graphic format book, the meaning is a combination of graphically conveyed meaning to text with the two working together. In this book, every box has text and often the illustration doesn’t add much to the content and understanding of the material. Secondly, even in the case of an injury and a person being unconscious, there is hardly any depiction in the illustration. The faces seem creepy to me and something is wrong with not enough emotion being conveyed in the facial expressions. It heavily relies on the eyebrow shape to convey emotion. The eyes all look strange and wrong. I can’t put my finger on why. This is digitally created art.There is a focus on division between the people working toward the same cause. Not all white women were united and working with each other, this is stated, and the same is made clear for black and native American women. I know people are complex and imperfect. The same divisions occurred during the Civil Rights Movement with Hispanics not being included in black organizations working toward the same cause. (Why this happens, I do not know.)I felt the writing was choppy, I could not engage with it. I attended a Suffrage Movement exhibit at The Constitution Museum in Philadelphia in 2021 which was engaging and interesting. As an adult who wants to know more about this not taught to me in public school or college topic I was disappointed in this book. With that said it is one of its kind at this point in time so it is a good starting point to include in libraries and school classroom libraries. I am torn between a 3 and 4 star review.
