Rosie the Riveter: The Legacy of an American Icon written and illustrated by Sarah Dvojack

 

Rosie the Riveter: The Legacy of an American Icon

written and illustrated by Sarah Dvojack

Imprint, 2021, 40 pages

When America went to war in 1941, men enlisted in droves to defend their country. But that left the workforce at home depleted and America needed people to step up production of war materials of all kinds. Women were perfectly willing to fill that need and in 1942, American women pulled on some overalls, wrapped their hair in a scarf, slung on a tool belt, and the figure of Rosie the Riveter was born. 

Now, Sarah Dvojack has captured that image in her biography of Rosie and all the Rosies who can before and after WWII. Because there have always been Rosies, they were just the unsung heroes in history. But WWII changed all that. 

Not allowed to fight. pretty soon, Rosies were working not only in offices, but were riveting airplanes and war ships, traditionally jobs help by men, but now in the very capable hands of women.   

It didn't take long for the image of Rosie the Riveter to become an icon in WWII popular culture. There were songs, posters, magazine covers, even a movie about Rosie. She was the hero that kept the home front going all through the war. But then the men returned and wanted their jobs back. Dvojack writes that Rosie had become such a powerful symbol that women could use in their fight to remain part of the workforce and then Rosie became a movement, with rallying cry "We can do it!" 

If you look closely, you'll notice all the women and girls are wearing something red with white polkadots.

I really liked the way Dvojack brought Rosie into the present showing young readers that as a symbol for women she is relevant in all fields and not just as a riveter - that there's some Rosie in every job a woman does and all of her achievements.

Rosie the Riveter is a wonderful picture book for older reader introducing them to the home front in WWII, and exploring the why and way she is still so relevant in today's world. I particularly liked the pencil and subtle hued digitally colored illustrations. They are so clean and clear and so inviting. 

Back matter include more information about Women, Work, and War, as well as popular culture renditions of Rosie. Check out the end papers and pages 16-17 to find other Women Heroes depicted in this book, all of whom are identified on the copyright page.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was borrowed from the Queens Public Library

Censorettes by Elizabeth Bales Frank

It's 1941 and Germany has been bombing London relentlessly. For Cambridge educated, Lucy Barrett, 20, it means the loss of her Italian-born mother, Tessa, in hospital being treated for illness when the building is bombed. And it means wondering what happened her beloved brother Matty, an RAF pilot, missing since Dunkirk (1940). Now, in an effort to keep his daughter safe, Lucy's father has sent her to Bermuda, to work as a Censorette for the Imperial Censorship Detachment, reading letters and looking for coded messages. And even though Bermuda is beautiful and relatively safe, Lucy intends to return to England just as soon as she turns 21, to really do her bit for the war.

Working in the basement of the Princess Hotel, Lucy shares rooms, first in the Bermudiana Hotel with Rebecca Lark, called Lark, and later moving to the Princess Hotel, where she and Lark acquire two more roommates - Georgina Taylor, called Georgie, and Ruth Smith, who chooses to sleep in a closet rather than in the bedroom with the other three women. Each of these women have particular talents for the job they do reading mail and looking for anything suspicious. Like the letters Lucy reads from a man they call Brooklyn Joe, whose English isn't very good, and who misquotes Shakespeare in them. But even after her supervisor, Colonel McKay, dismisses the first few letters, Lucy persists. Is she on to something? 

Into this mix of four roommates, come more woman working for the Imperial Censorship Detachment, including McKay's secretary Rebecca Gwynne, two Belgian sisters called Fleur and Roos and then, there are the American soldiers, there to build an airport. It doesn't take long for some weekend partying to begin, complete with a piano, an accordion player and a well-stocked wet bar, thanks to the Americans, who aren't in the war and so not dealing with rationing. 

One American soldier, Lieutenant William Inman, is particularly attracted to Lucy, and while she's not quite as attracted to him, it doesn't take long for his temper and possessiveness to rear their ugly heads. He is especially annoyed at all the attention Lucy gives to Ruth, whom she has taken under her wing and brought her into the fold. Ruth, who likes to paint using watercolors, has always been told that she is "an odd duck. Mental. Looney." Under Lucy's mentoring, she begins to come out of her shell and participate in dances, movie going, and parties. Much to the chagrin of Bill Inman. But when Ruth is found murdered in a park one Sunday morning, her death is not really investigated and her family is disinterested. Lucy, however, has her suspicions.

This is not a mystery novel and Ruth's death is not at the heart of it. What is at the heart is women's friendships and the ways in which women were treated by the men in their lives at the time. From the moment Lucy's father exerts his parental control by sending her to Bermuda for his own peace of mind, to McKay's dismissing Lucy's suspicion about Brooklyn Joe and his letters despite her Cambridge education and her fluency in English, Italian, French, German, and Shakespeare, to Bill Inman treating her as if she were a piece of his personal property, Lucy's strength and intelligence are devalued at every turn. It is only among her female companions that she find the validation she craves. The novel changes time frames to capture the interesting back stories of Lucy and each of her roommates, so the reader knows exactly where they are coming from in life and why they are who they are.  

Censorettes is a multilayered, well textured novel that moves along at an unhurried, never boring pace (reflecting a sunny, leisurely life on Bermuda, even in wartime?). It kept my interest all the way through, so much so that I hated to have to put the book down for different reasons and couldn't wait to get back to it. There is much going on in the novel, but I don't want to spoil it. There are also lots of timely details about life on Bermuda during there war adding depth to the story and which I found very interesting. Movies, songs, different places are all mentioned and are all spot on correct. In this respect, it reminded me of the Maggie Hope mysteries by Susan Elia MacNeal. 

If you are interested in women in WWII, you might find this is a book for you. It is based on the real Censorettes working in Bermuda then, and I highly recommend reading the author's Notes and Acknowledgments in the back matter. You might also want to read about how Elizabeth Bales Frank was inspired to write Censorettes while visiting Bermuda on Sarah Johnson's blog Reading the Past.

This book is recommended for readers age 15+

This book is was gratefully received from the author.

Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizebeth Friedman Changed the Course of Two World Wars by Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by Brooke Smart

Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizebeth Friedman Changed 

the Course of Two World Wars

by Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by Brooke Smart

Harry N. Abrams, 2021, 48 pages

This picture book for older readers tells the story of a remarkable woman who developed new code- making and breaking techniques, helped capture bootleggers, and even managed to catch a few Nazi spies. 

When she was a child, Elizebeth Smith loved poetry and Shakespeare was her favorite author. She appreciated the structure and patterns she noticed in his poetry. Not surprisingly, Elizebeth graduated college in 1915 with a degree in English Lit, but she also studied Latin, Greek, and German. 

Looking for a job in Chicago, Elizebeth was introduced to George Fabyan, a wealthy eccentric Shakespeare fan who invited her to become part of a group of researchers on his estate, Riverbank, who were looking for proof that Francis Bacon was the real writer of Shakespeare's plays. Her job was to look for secret messages left by Bacon in the plays. Who knew this job would eventually lead to Elizebeth's helping to capture Nazi spies?  

Well, Elizebeth never found any coded messages but she did find friendship in the person of William Friedman, a scientist. The two friends spent part of their time together devising secret notes and challenging each other to decode them. Soon, they were in love and married. 

When the United States entered WWI in 1917, Riverbank was converted to a code-breaking unit called the Riverbank Department of Ciphers. Elizebeth, William, and their cipher staff set about decoding enemy communications and developing new code-breaking techniques. 

After the war, Elizebeth went on the work for the Coast Guard. They needed help with smugglers who were hiding bootleg liquor and communicating with each other using coded messages. Could Elizebeth crack the codes, so the bootleggers could be caught? She could and did, often testifying at the trials of the smugglers.

When the United States entered WWII, Elizabeth's code-breaking skills were once again needed. In 1942, she joined the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and began setting up a code-breaking unit. Yet, when her decoding talents helped with the capture of some Nazi spies, the FBI director took all the credit for himself. Nevertheless, Elizebeth carried on and helped put American Velvalee Dickinson in prison for spying for the Japanese by decoding her letters about buying "dolls." 

Then came Germany's Enigma code-making machine, which created seemingly unbreakable codes. Thanks to a lazy Enigma operator, Elizabeth and her staff were about to break the codes after months of hard work. They didn't know that in England, code-breaker Alan Turing had also broken the Enigma codes.  

I loved the way Elizebeth's own words were strategically worked into the stylized watercolor and gouache illustrations so readers can get a real sense of who Elizebeth was and what she thought about the groundbreaking work she did. I also loved the ribbons of coded messages the wrap around a number of pages like a lasso capturing secrets, including the Nazis that Elizebeth's decoded messages helped catch. And if you are interested in trying your hand at decoding. those ribbons are coded messages. Check out the back matter for help solving them.

Code Breaker, Spy Hunter is a fascinating biography about a woman who did so much and received so little credit for her hard work. It is packed with interesting information about Elizebeth's personal and professional life. 

Besides information about Codes and Ciphers, back matter includes a challenge to Crack The Code, information on Cryptography Today, a Timeline and a Selected Bibliography.   

You can also find some Activity Sheets to download courtesy of the publisher, Abrams Books HERE 

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was borrowed from the Queens Public Library

Rosie: Stronger than Steel written and illustrated by Lindsay Ward

Rosie: Stronger than Steel written and illustrated 

by Lindsay Ward

Two Lions, 2020, 40 pages

When a country goes to war, it mobilizes all its resources to help win that war. That was certainly true during World War II when men enlisted, children collected paper and cans, people donated whatever metal objects they could, and, women found themselves working in factories and fields, doing jobs traditionally held by men, all to help with the war effort.

The important work of women, those in the factories, collectively and iconically known as Rosie the Riveter and those working in the fields, appropriately known as the Land Girls, is highlighted in this appealing picture book through the eyes of a one-of-a-kind tractor.

The tractor is made out of donated items, then welded, riveted, painted green, given a lovely rose tattoo, and befittingly named Rosie. All the work is done by a group of women singing as they work.
As she leaves the factory, Rosie promises:

               "I plow and I dig.

                 I dig and I plow.

                   No matter the job,

                this is my vow."

Then, it's off by plane, ship, truck and train, until Rosie finally arrives at her destination - an overgrown farm in England in desperate need of tending. Between Rosie and the Land Girls, working day and night, they spent endless days in the fields, even as enemy planes fly overhead, helping to  provide desperately needed food to troops fighting in Europe to help win the war.

Together, Rosie and the Land Girls also hauled milk containers, and freshly picked produce. They even clear more land together, "Day after day. Year after year." Until finally, Victory! And the war is over.

But what happens to Rosie now that the war is over?

March is Women's History Month and I can't think of a better book for introducing young readers to some of the important contributions of women during WWII. Ward situates Rosie using newspaper headlines that encapsulate not just her story about one tractor's journey, but the historical background upon which it is based.

Rosie: Stronger than Steel is in part written in rhyming verse, and in part, lyrical language. The rhymes are repeated throughout the book, and if your young readers are anything like mine, they will have those verses memorized and in no time at all, you will be hearing "This is our Rosie, / stronger than steel. / She'll plow all the land / with the turn of her wheel."

The engaging illustrations are done using color pencils and cut paper and have a decidedly retro feel to them. I liked the way Ward used a brown palette for the factory illustrations, and a lush green palette for the farming images. True to life, the factory images age also diverse.

My young readers are 4-5-years-old and they saw this mainly as a story about a tractor that helped people during a war. Older readers will appreciate the roles of women as well as the call for action during the war, making this a great book for use both inside and outside the classroom/home school room.

Back matter includes a very informative Author's Note about the women who inspired Ward to write Rosie and a bibliography of books about the Women's Land Army, Rosie the Riveter, and Ford tractors.

All readers will love the We Can Do It spirit that permeates the story of Rosie: Stronger than Steel.

Meet the Author:
Lindsay Ward is the creator of the Dexter T. Rexter series as well as This Book is Gray, Brobarians, Rosco vs. the Baby, and The Importance of Being 3. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play. Lindsay lives with her family in Peninsula, Ohio, where she often sees tractors from the 1930s and 1940s. Learn more about her online at www.lindsaymward.com. And you can follow her on Twitter at @lindsaymward.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was gratefully received by me from Blue Slip Media.

Courageous Women of the Vietnam War: Medics, Journalists, Survivors, and More by Kathryn J. Atwood

"Vietnam is like a huge jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces fit"

Today, I digress from WWII. March is Women's History Month and today is International Women's Day, a time for celebrating women and their achievements. In this book about women in Vietnam, Kathryn Atwood not only presents the reader with some incredibly brave women, but uses their accomplishments to fit the puzzle pieces together to form a whole picture of the events to shaped Vietnam between 1945 and 1975. 

Organized into five distinct chronological parts, each part gives a brief history detailing the political events that were occurring both within and outside Vietnam's borders, pivotal events that were often the result of the actions of outsiders, first the French and later the Americans. This political history is seen through the lens of the fourteen brave women profiled. These are women who came from different backgrounds - Vietnamese, American, French, Australian, and New Zealand, and each for their own reasons. Who were these amazing women?

One example is Geneviève de Galard, who came from a long line of French ancestors that had always proudly served in the military. In 1953, at 27, she followed in their footsteps as a military nurse and part of an evacuation team that transported wounded soldiers from remote parts of Indochina to Saigon and Paris. On one mission to Dien Bien Phu, surrounded by Vietminh artillery assaults, Geneviève realized she would be on the ground indefinitely helping to care for the wounded, where she was "in a way, a mother, a sister, a friend" as well as a nurse. 

Almost as soon as US Navy nurse Bobbi Hovis received her orders in 1963, she was on a plane heading to Saigon. There, Bobbi and other medical personnel spent their days turning a filthy, rickety apartment building into a hospital. As wounded arrived, improvisation became a way of life. In November 1963, a coup to overthrow South Vietnam's unpopular leader Ngo Dinh Diem began, then later that month the news of President Kennedy's assassination was announced. Fighting in Saigon increased with the threat of killing two Americans a day, and in February, the VietCong bombed Bobbi's favorite movie theater. But it was the photo of a dead soldier's wife and children that finally made Bobbi realize she had had enough. 

New Zealander Kate Webb decided to go to Vietnam as a journalist because it "...was simply the biggest story going, and [she] didn't understand it." Beginning as a freelance reporter in Saigon, Kate wrote about things that interested her, spending time with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Eventually, she made her way to the Cambodian border, where the US allied Khmer Republic had just been put in place. But the Cambodian communists, the Khmer Rouge, were also becoming stronger and soon a civil war broke out. Kate covered the fighting and when it was over, found herself, along with other reporters and cameramen, prisoners of the NVA (North Vietnamese Army). Marched northward, starved, lacking water, regularly interrogated, tortured, and expecting to be killed at any moment, Kate survived her 23 day capture, but not without serious PTSD.

You may not recognize the name Kim Phuc, but most likely you know who she is. On June 8, 1972, Kim's family had taken refuge in a temple with others when bombs filled with napalm were dropped. Kim's clothing and body were burned by the napalm from a second bomb, and photographer Nick Ut captured her running away naked and screaming in pain. Kim's photo made history, but not her years of pain and recovery. Year's later, she became the pawn of a communist official named Hai Tam, who used her to lure western journalists with the promise of an interview and forcing Kim to leave medical school. Eventually, Kim did get away from Hai Tam, married and lives in Canada. 

I tend to avoid books about the Vietnam War. It was always so confusing, and there was so much controversy surrounding it in the United States between supporters and protesters, it just seemed easier to ignore. So I have to admit, I approached this book with some trepidation.  

What I found is a well-crafted book about women of courage. And not all of them were on the side of South Vietnam, nor were they all pro-war. All of their stories are fascinating, and include what later became of them after they left Vietnam. Kim Pfuc's story is a good example of that, so is that of the navy nurse Kay Wilhelmy Bauer who worked as a recruiter when she returned home. Kay indirectly survived the war when her neighbor's house was bombed by protesters, killing the people who lived there, by mistake. I was particularly happy to see Joan Baez included. Her political songs and visit to Vietnam may have been popular with anti-war protesters, but some veterans felt she had contributed to the terrible treatment they experienced when they returned home from Vietnam. As she told them, it was the war, not the veterans, she was against. This proved to be an important lesson about distinction to learn, when the US entered future wars not of the soldiers making.  

The great thing about Courageous Women of the Vietnam War, and in fact, all of Kathryn Atwood's books are that they are not young reader editions of adult books. They are first and foremost written for young adults so that they read smoothly but without talking down to the reader. Unfamiliar terms are clearly explained, and the intros to each part of the story make the complicated Vietnam War understandable. There is a map at the beginning of the book, which is always helpful, and I found myself referring to it more than once. Back matter includes a Glossary, Notes, and an excellent Bibliography.

In her Introduction, Atwood writes that "when women volunteer to participate in a war, they exhibit  a particular kind of courage, to face not only the dangers of battle, but also the negative opinions - perhaps even their own - of those who don't believe them capable of enduring war's grueling difficulties." (pg. 5) As you read these 14 amazing stories, I think you will see that particular kind of courage present in each one of them. 

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Chicago Review Press 

Women Heroes of World War II - The Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival by Kathryn Atwood

Ever since I started this blog, I've thought a lot about heroes and heroism. In her new book, Women Heroes of World War II - The Pacific Theater, Kathryn Atwood takes as her guiding principle two quotes. One from humanist and women's rights activist Zainab Salbi, which reads "War can teach you so much about evil, and so much about good." The other quote is from diplomat/historian George F. Kennan. who said "Heroism is endurance for one moment more." The 15 women that Atwood has chosen for her second book about woman in WWII are indeed examples of heroes who endured in the midst of and despite so many of the wartime evils they encountered.

Once again, Atwood has included stories about courageous nurses, journalists, a photographer, a missionary, a teenage survivor of a Japanese POW internment camp, and yes, even a 14 year old rape survivor who was forced to become a comfort woman for the occupying Japanese in the Philippines. Their nationalities are as varied as their situations, ranging from American to Dutch, Malayan, Chinese, Filipino, British, and Australian, but each and every one has a story this is as harrowing as it is compelling.

Most people think that World War II began with Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. I've always thought it to have began in 1937, with the Second Sino-Japanese War and the fall of Nanjing, but Atwood takes the reader back to 1932 China. The Japanese had already invaded Manchuria, and now they set their sites on Shanghai. American reporter Peggy Hull had just arrive in China thinking to write articles about women there, but suddenly she found herself the war correspondent for the NY Daily News instead. Peggy reported on this early fighting between Japan and China despite the danger, but was later ironically refused accreditation as a war correspondent when the fighting intensified, and was forced to report from Hawaii until 1945.

Peggy's story is followed by that of Minnie Vautrin, also an American. When the Japanese invaded Nanjing in 1937, Minnie was working at a woman's college there. The college was turned into a woman's refugee camp, in an attempt to protect them being raped by the Japanese, who were intent on raping every female, in Nanjing, regardless of age. By the end of 1937, the college had become a sanctuary for 10,000 women.

The most difficult story to read is that of Maria Rosa Henson, a 14 year old Filipina who had always lived in near poverty with her mother. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Maria was repeatedly raped by soldiers as she went about collecting desperately needed firewood. When she and her mother finally moved in with a male relative, he talked Maria into joining the Hukbalahap, or Huk, a guerrilla army, working as a courier. One day, she was taken by the Japanese to a garrison, where she was repeatedly beaten and raped until some Huk guerrilla's rescued her. Atwood continues Maria's story, telling about her attempts to make the plight of "comfort women" known and attempts to make the Japanese government acknowledge what was done to Maria and so many other women during WWII.

Some of the experiences included in this volume are difficult to read, case in point is that of Maria, but they all are important and deserve the kind of acknowledgement that Atwood gives the women in her "hero" books. So many could have given up, turned their backs, left it all for someone else to do, but instead these courageous women endured that one moment more.

Atwood has organized Women Heroes of World War II - The Pacific Theater in sections of place: I- China; II- the Philippines; III- Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies; IV- Iwo Jima and Okinawa. I was already familiar with some of the stories she included, like that of American photographer Dickey Chappelle but I still found Atwood's bio of her to be fresh and informative. In fact, I found that to be true of all the stories. They are written with Atwood's characteristic energy, and though they are short, the stories are so succinct that I felt I had actually read much more than I did.  

Be sure to read the Introduction, where Atwood has included some very important background information. There is also a map of the Pacific Theater to help reader unfamiliar with that part of the world. At the end of each woman's story, readers will find Learn More suggestions for further reading, and the Epilogue will take them past the end of WWII and into the Cold War.  Back Matter includes Discussion Questions and Suggestions for Further Study, perfect for high school students studying WWII, an extensive Bibliography and, as with all good researchers, Notes used for each section of the book.

For an excellent overall picture of this part of the world in WWII, pair Women Heroes of World War II - The Pacific Theater with Mary Cronk Farrell's book Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific.

I cannot recommend this new book by Kathryn Atwood highly enough.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Chicago Review Press

Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies and Medics by Kathryn J. Atwood

Today is the last day of Women's History Month for 2015 and because the theme this year is about Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives, I thought who better to turn to for today's post than Kathryn Atwood.  A few year ago, Atwood wrote a fascinating book called Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue.  Now she has followed it up with a book about women heroes in World War I and once again, their stories are as amazing as they are compelling.

In Women Heroes of World War I, Atwood introduces the reader to some of the women, a few still in their teens, who decided to serve their country, despite the real dangers that they were to face.  Some became nurses, caring for the wounded as close to the front lines as they could get.  Others joined the resistance or became spies, some became soldiers fighting side by side with men, and still others were journalists, reporting events from the heart of the conflict.

Some of the women are familiar, like British born Edith Cavell who found herself in Belgium when the war started, director of a school of nursing there.  After the Germans invaded Belgium, hospitals were forbidden to care for any Allied soldiers that might find their to one of them.  Edith, ignoring the Germans, cared for wounded Germans soldiers openly, and for wounded Allied soldiers secretly.  And when these were healthy enough, she made such they had safe passage out of Belgium to the Netherlands.  Edith and her network can be credited for heroically getting a lot of Allied soldiers to safety before the getting caught by the Germans.  Her capture and punishment, which caused an uproar around the world, subsequently changed the way Germany handled women POWs at the insistence of the Kaiser.

One of my favorite stories is Helena Gleichen and her friend Nina Hollings, two ambulance drivers in Italy who sometimes found themselves driving through intense shelling to get wounded men to hospital.  Later, after training in Paris to become radiographers, they could be found driving around the Italian front with a portable x-ray machine.  With their x-ray skill, Helena and Nina were able to help the wounded in some surprising ways, for example, locating shrapnel lodged in areas that wouldn't have been found otherwise and bringing relief to the wounded man.  For their heroic work, the women were awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (the OBE).

My personal favorite is the story of Mary Roberts Rinehart.  Yes, I do mean the mystery writer.  Mary was also a journalist who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post and in 1915, she decided she wanted to go to Belgium.  After all, she had nursing experience and could report of the conditions of the hospitals there, but what she really wanted to do was experience the war as soldiers do.  Mary finally did get to see the front lines, including no man's land, and even managed to get an extensive interview with the King of Belgium.  Returning home she wrote her articles, but realized the war was going to last longer than anyone thought.

Women Heroes of World War I is a well-written, riveting book.  Atwood divides the women's experiences into four sections - Resisters and Spies, Medical Personnel, Soldiers, and Journalists.  The women profiled come from different countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Russia and each of their individual stories ends with a Learn More inset listing where to find more information them.  Atwood's extensive, intelligent research is evident in all the women's stories and she includes sidebars that give additional information about the women and the war.  Also included are an Introduction, an Epilogue and many, many photographs of war and the different women in it.  An extensive and useful Glossary and Bibliography, and well as a list of websites can also be found at the back of the book.

World War I was at first greeted with incredible enthusiasm, causing young men to unhesitatingly leave school, jobs, and families to join their countries armed services.  After all, no one thought it would last more than a few months.  Women were also eager to do their part and for some that meant being in the thick of the fighting, not working on the home front.  Women Heroes of World War I not only informs the reader about these now mostly forgotten women heroes, but pays homage to them and all the women who decided to do constructive for their warring countries.   

I can't recommend Women Heroes of World War I highly enough, and what a wonderful book with which to end this year's Women History Month.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

March is Women's History Month

This is book 3 of my 2015 Any War Reading Challenge hosted by War Through the Generations

Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II by Cheryl Mullenbach

February is Black History Month and way back in 2011, I looked at a book about African American soldiers in World War II called The Double V Campaign: African Americans and World War II by Michael L. Cooper.  The Double V Campaign demanded that African Americans who were risking their lives fighting for freedom and democracy abroad should be given full civil rights at home - Victory at home AND abroad.   Cooper's book is an interesting, well-researched book, but it doesn't tell the whole story of the Double Victory Campaign.  The Double V campaign was also waged on the home front, and women played a very important part.

In her book, Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II, Cheryl Mullenbach brings together the lives and work of a number of strong, brave women in four areas: women who worked in the war industry,  women who became political activists, women in the military, volunteers and of course, women in entertainment.

Here are only a few of the many stories covered in Mullenbach's book:
High school teacher Layle Lane was asked by A. Philip Randolph, a Civil Righs leader, to help organize a March on Washington in 1941 to end discrimination in employment, since most defense plants would not hire African Americans.  The march never happened, but Lane was in on the talks with President Roosevelt that led to the issuance of Executive Order Number 8802, which meant if you discriminate, the Fair Employment Practices Committee can investigate you.  It wasn't perfect, but it was a start.

Pauli Murray, a female law student, let students from Howard University in peaceful direct action sit-in at a restaurant that refused to serve African Americans.  Three by three the students entered, sat and asked for service.  When that was refused, they stayed seated and began to quietly study.  Police couldn't arrest them because by not being served, they weren't breaking the law.  The owner closed for the day, but when he reopened the next day, the students held a peaceful picket outside and after a few days of lost business, the Whites Only sign came down.

The women who joined the WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) once it was opened to African Americans discovered the racism and segregation followed them into the military, just as it had followed men of color.  Nevertheless, the women soldered on and succeeded.  And eventually, Charity Adams even became the first African American woman officer in the WAACs and commanded the 6888th Central Postal Battalion (see Mare's War by Tanita Davis for an interesting and accurate fictional account of one women's experience in the 6888th).

Star power carries a lot of weight and in WWII it was not different.  When the Hollywood Victory Campaign was formed, actress Hattie McDaniel was asked to be in charge of "Negro talent" section.  Hattie, who had won an Academy Award in 1940 for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind, helped to organize black entertainers to perform in the segregated all black units of the armed forces.  This work required the entertainers would need to meet frequently, usually at Hattie's house.  But she lived in a restricted area, meaning no blacks allowed.  So when the white homeowners filed a legal complaint, Hattie fought back and won.

Lena Horne, one of my favorite singers, was a favorite during the 1930s and 1940s and she was also part of the Hollywood Victory Campaign.  Mullenbach tells about the time on a southern USO tour, Lena performed one night to a white only audience, and the next morning in the mess hall, she was to perform for the black soldiers.  But in the front row were German POWs.   She left the stage, stood in front of the black soldiers, back to the Germans and sang.  She ended up quitting the USO tour over this, but continued entertaining soldiers throughout the war.

These are just a few of the many interesting women included in Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II.  It is a well-researched, nicely presented book with lots of supporting photographs and detailed back matter.   It is intelligently written, yet very accessible for young readers.  The fact that she introduces us to ordinary women doing extraordinary things in wartime makes it all the more valuable.  And while it is good to know that anyone can make a difference, not just famous people, it is also nice to read about the contributions of so many African American women, which are often overlooked.

Kathryn Atwood started a narrative about women and their courageous acts in WWII in her work Women Heroes of World War II and Cheryl Mullenbach has extended that narrative to include African American women in Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was an E-ARC from Net Galley

For more on the Double Victory Campaign, see Newspapers - The Pittsburgh Courier and
Fighting For Democracy - African Americans