Starting from Seneca Falls by Karen Schwabach
Release: June 23rd 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: Netgalley
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Celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment with another historical novel about women’s suffrage from the author of The Hope Chest!
Bridie’s life has been a series of wrongs. The potato famine in Ireland. Being sent to the poorhouse when her mother’s new job in America didn’t turn out the way they’d hoped. Becoming an orphan.
And then there’s the latest wrong–having to work for a family so abusive that Bridie is afraid she won’t survive. So she runs away to Seneca Falls, New York, which in 1848 is a bustling town full of possibility. There, she makes friends with Rose, a girl with her own list of wrongs but with big dreams, too.
Rose helps Bridie get a job with the strangest lady she’s ever met, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Mrs. Stanton is planning a convention to talk about the rights of women. For Bridie and Rose, it’s a new idea, that women and girls could have a voice. But they sure are sick of all the wrongs. Maybe it’s time to fight for their rights!
About the Author
KAREN SCHWABACH grew up in upstate New York and lived for many years in Alaska, where she taught ESL in the Yup’ik village of Chefornak. She later taught in the education department at Salem College in North Carolina. She’s the author of A Pickpocket’s Tale, The Hope Chest, The Storm Before Atlanta, and Starting from Seneca Falls.
Starting from Seneca Falls Review:
A BIG thank you to Netgalley and Random House Books for providing an advanced copy of this book for my review. This book might seem like a cute friendship tale from the cover, but it is so much more than that. It beautifully blends fiction with the historical events at Seneca Falls for Women’s rights.
Bridie and Rose are adorable as the main characters. They face a lot of challenges but stick together and remain positive for a better future. One of my favorite scenes was when Bridie speaks about her mother’s situation with everyone in the meeting. I also loved her fascination of the printing press, and made me curious to visit one myself. Rose is a character that inspires you do better, as she knows the value and importance of education from an early age. She doesn’t let the color of her skin stop her from achieving her dreams.
The author has done a wonderful job in telling Bridie’s tale while providing historical events of the Seneca Falls in an accurate manner. I always love reading stories that get me interested in historical events. Reading this story encouraged me to research more about Elizabeth Stanton and Frederick Douglass. Furthermore, the story also covered many other topics, like the printing press, phrenology (which I had never heard of) and the Irish Potato Famine.
I feel this is one of those books that everyone should read. It provides awareness as to how far we have come in the last 200 years, but still have so much further to go. Overall, Starting from Seneca Falls was very entertaining and informative.
