Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution
- author: Laurie Halse Anderson http://madwomanintheforest.com/
- illustrator: Matt Faulkner http://www.mattfaulkner.com/
- median: watercolor, pen and ink
- year of publication: 2008
- publication city: New York, NY
- publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
- ISBN: 978-0689858086
Personal Thoughts: Author Laurie Halse Anderson and illustrator Matt Faulkner have created a lively and engaging book with Independent Dames. Anderson draws readers in with a light conversational tone, yet packs a whole lot into 40 pages. The main narrative explains all the different ways in which women contributed to the war effort; from raising funds for the troops, to acting as spies for the American forces, and even disguising themselves as men in order to fight on the battlefields. Insets on each page tell the stories of real-life heroines of the American Revolution, while a timeline along the bottom of the pages provide a chronology of the war. All these components comprise merely the text of the book- there is a parallel narrative occuring in the illustrations. A school play about the heroes of the Revolution is crashed by Revolutionary women on horseback, who procede to tell their stories. The illustrations are executed in pen and ink with watercolor. Faulkner's heroines are expressive without being cartoonish and speech bubbles will draw in young readers who are partial to comics and graphic novels. Even with all of these things occuring simultaneously on each page, the book never feels overwhelming or confusing. Anderson provides back matter for children interested in learning more, and sorts fact from fiction about Revolutionary women who students may have already heard of such as Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher.
***Curriculum Connection - 5th Grade U.S. History, Revolutionary War, Women in History
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