Customer Reviews

A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C. 1917 (Dear America Series)

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As War rages on in Europe in 1917 Kathleen "Cat" Bowen knows there is another big fight to finish at home. Her mother, sister, aunt, and many other women around her have all become suffragists to the disapproval of many men including Cat's uncle and her father. Cat and her cousin Alma want to join the picket lines but they are too young. The excitement builds as the picket lines have lasted more than a week and it seems there might be hope in the horizon! News reaches far out of the picket lines in Washington D.C. and many women from all over the United States have come to participate in the fight for the right to vote. On the homefront as the United States gets ready for war Cat sees the changes at home too as women take a much more active role in the society such as her cousin Alma who helps with the Red Cross over in Europe after running away from home and her problems . However Cat suffers a blow with the unexpected arrest of her mother. Can Cat survive more things to come?

It's 1917 in Washington, D.C, and as the Great War rages in Europe, thirteen-year-old Kathleen Bowen is caught up in a fight closer to home. Her mother, sister Nell, and Auntie Claire are suffragists, fighting for voting rights for women, to the disapproval of her Uncle Bayard and the worry of her father. Kat and her cousin Alma, who are the exact same age, want to help, but they are too young to join the picket line. As it begins to seem more and more likely that the United States will enter the war, life begins to change in other ways. Nell leaves to join the Women's Ambulance Corps in France, and Alma, desperate to escape after her parents' bitter divorce, runs away to England and becomes a Red Cross volunteer. But the worst hardship of all is still to come. Kat's mother is arrested, and Kat wonders how she will ever make it through this unbearable loneliness. I highly recommend this book to all fans of the Dear America series.

A Time for Courage by Kathryn Lasky is one of my all-time favorite books in the Dear America historical fiction series. It is not particularly my favorite era of American history, but it is so well-written and interesting you just fall right in.
Kathleen Bowen's mother, aunt, older sister, and best friend's mother are all deeply involved in women's suffrage and equality rights, living in Washington D.C., 1917. Kathleen's father does not approve only because he worries for his wife's safety---many women have been arrested and beaten by police for protesting outside the White House. Yet Kathleen's friend's father disapproves of his wife's antics because he is a bit of a sexist. Soon, Kathleen becomes involved with the rights of women everywhere, just like her sisters and mother.
This timeless addition in Dear America will please all, and I promise you shall not be able to put it down. All the protagonists are extremely likable, and this book is just indescribably great. I just can't put it to words. READ IT!

Set in Washington, D.C.,1917. 13-year-old Kathleen Bowen revels in her diary her hopes, dreams, fears, and her suffering. Her mother has become a active member in the suffrage, and pickettes everyday. Her sisters have joined the Red Cross and have left her alone, Her cousin and only best friend Alma, leaves after her parents get a divorce. Her father spend more time in his office than at home. Alone and sad, she faces the world alone. Her only friend and the person she can confide in is her diary. Just when she thinks things cannot get worse, they do. Her mother is put in jail. Kat must find all her courage and streght to face what is to come. I highly recommed this diary for any Dear America fan or any one that enjoys historical fiction.

Kat Bowen is living in Washington D.C. during the woman's fight for the vote. Her own mother is among the woman picketing outside the White House Kat writes down her own views and opinions during this time. She supports her mother but at the same time worries about her mother. Especially after Kat sees how women picketing are being treated. She also witnesses trouble in her family when her uncle is so against the picketing and noting of women voting to the point it almost ruins the marriage of her aunt and uncle. Its amazing how badly picketers were treated and at the same time the women who did picket and go through the hunger strikes and horrible time in jail they were all so brave. An excellent book.

This is a great historical book.
Not only it teaches about America's history,
it also teaches about a girl's life during that peoriod and women's courage. I didn't even know that women couldn't vote until 1920!!! And I didn't even have to look at text book!!

This is not a half bad addition to the ever growing Dear America Series. I just don't think that it it the best out there. Kat's story is pretty interesting though, and I actually learned a lot of things from reading her "diary."

Over the course of a year, Kat's diary is a window into the happenings of the suffragette movement in Washington, D.C., of which Kat's mother is a part of. At first, Kat is pleased to have so many "exciting" things taking place right in her own neighborhood. Eventually though, she begins to feel left behind when her mother becomes more and more dedicated to the suffragette movement, her sister Nell gets swept away by her own plans, and, perhaps most of all, when Kat's best friend Alma is taken away.

The historical accuracy of this book is mainly what made the story so interesting to me. If I had ever read about the way women suffragettes were treated, I'd forgotten all but the basics, and was really interested by the things that happen. Kat's voice is clear, but her story seems a little flat, bolstered a great deal by the story of the suffragettes.

If you've liked other books in the Dear America series, or are interested in getting a better picture of the struggle that went on before women were allowed the right to vote, you'll definitely like this book, as I did. I just didn't feel that it was quite as good as some of the other Dear America books that I have read in the past.

I have read many books in the dear America series and this one is one of my favorites. I liked it because in addition to being well written it's also exciting. Not only does Kathleen Bowen's mother Join the picket line and get arrested, but America also joins the first World War. Kathleen's sister and cousin leave to become nurses in Europe on the front. So not only was the book fun to read, but I also learned a lot about the suffrage movement.

I'm not giving this 4 stars because I didn't like parts of it, it just wasn't the same as my favorite DA books. But it was worth reading. I learned how awful it was for the women on the picket lines, and how even worse it was for the women in jail. Another reason I didn't like this that much was because I'm not interested in the time period, but people who are will enjoy this book very much.

A Time for Courage: the Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowenpart of the Dear America series by Kathryn Lasky, paints a very intimate and well-researched look of life of a teenage daugther of a Suffragette living in Washington, D.C. in 1917.

Not only is this Kat Bowen's life in an upheaval over the rights of women to vote, and the sufferings her mother and her family go through to achieve this right, but "The Great War" starts. Kat Bowen just wants to share banana splits with her cousin and best friend, Alma, but even that ritual is shattered as Alma is torn from her side by her father who fears the suffragettes and by World War I, since Alma runs away to become a nurse at the age of 14.

Kat weathers these events by sewing banners for the suffragettes, growing a liberty garden, playing hockey at her "progressive" girls school, and writing her mother letters while her mother is in prison. She excels at Latin to please a teacher, and makes a new friend, whose last name Wilhem, has led to harrassment at school.

Kathryn Lasky, the author, is an amazing and prolific children's author who has written over a hundred books ranging from fantasy, to history, to picture books. This book, like so many others written by her, was read by my oldest daughter first, and then me. We can find most of her books at the library. Some of the other series by her that we like are: the Camp Princess series, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and a new wolf series (name slipping right now).

Only one little section of the above book stood out to me as slightly disagreeable, and I discussed it with my daughter.

I think people lie a lot, not really to deceive or mislead, just to get over these rough spots. There are a lot of rough spots these days. I know that Father is very worried about Mother. I know he really does not think she should be out there every day for such long hours in the cold. I know he thinks woman's suffrage is probably a nice thing but wishes women had never had the idea. But he never really says these things. I think people often lie for love." (p.26,)

Part of the reason I felt sensitive about the above passage is that I have seen deceit being shown as a good/acceptable quality trait for heroes and heroines in Juvenile and YA literature, and so when I read anything about deceit, the red flag flies up in my mind. The character in this passage is trying to make sense of all that is happening in her life, and she does so with a great deal of insight, however, I was afraid for a moment that deceit was going to be portrayed as an acceptable part of life. Thankfully it does not become a large part of the novel, although Kat's cousin Alma does lie to her dad about working on homework when she is really sewing suffragette banners.

Although there are a number of spoilers in what I've written, there is even more plot, character and action packed into this book that you might enjoy reading. I highly recommend reading it for a good historical novel, either on your own or with a girl whose age ranges from upper elementary through high school.