A is for Abigail by Lynne Cheney

Our Weekly Book Review

Julia (6) and I are starting a new venture together!  We are going to review one children's book a week for the duration of the summer.

This week we chose A is for Abigail by Lynne Cheney.  We have been reading lots of great historical books this summer to prepare us for Classical Conversations this upcoming year.

This 2003 book is an almanac of amazing American women over the past 200 years.  It starts with Abigail Adams in 1776...and each letter of the alphabet is dedicated to an American Female Hero!  From Elizabeth Blackwell (the first woman to earn a medical degree) to the woman athlete of the year (6 all time winner) Babe Didrikson Zaharias.  

I loved how this book featured well over 200 amazing women from all different walks of life, careers, and races.  All of the women talked about in the book have added to our awesome melting pot in American history.  And I really enjoyed traveling through time from 200 years ago to present times.  I got to share with Julia people I was familiar with like Rosa Parks, Mary Lou Retton, Hellen Keller, Susan B. Anthony, Oprah Winfrey, Ella Fitzgerald, Laura Ingalls, and countless others.  I also learned a bit of history myself!

Julia loved the illustrations and especially loved the picture of all the First Ladies starting with Martha Washington and ending with Laura Bush.  And she loved the all the famous actresses, especially Shirley Temple!  She really liked all the historical facts that you could learn by studying little tid bits from each person's life.

Our favorite quotes in the book were, "I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman!" by Helen Reddy.

Julia liked: "Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do.Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." by Ella Fitzgerald.

This book will teach you a lot of women history (something we really don't read a lot about in our history books) and fill you with tons of pride for our country and the women who have made it so wonderful!

Julia and I give this book 5 stars ***** and recommend it to all young readers! 

P.S. Even Mark was reading it over our shoulders!  Although he did ask, "How come there aren't any boys in this book?!"  (Julia and I thought that was cute and we had to tell you!)

To order this book from Amazon go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Abigail-Almanac-Amazing-American-Women/dp/0689858191/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405975882&sr=8-1&keywords=a+is+for+abigail+an+almanac+of+amazing+american+women

or click here