Giant Steps: Suffragettes and Soldiers Paper
As Giant Steps opens, Bernie Epperson, age thirteen, of Lafayette, Indiana, is wrestling with the double standards placed on her compared with her brothers. Soon her cousin awakens her to all the unfair restrictions women face, and Bernie becomes a suffragette. Meanwhile, World War I begins. Her family is devastated when her brothers become soldiers, and Bernie must decide how to help the war effort and continue to fight for the rights of women. While this story is fictional, the details of the suffrage movement and the war efforts of ordinary Americans are true. Middle and high school students will relate to Bernie and her brothers dilemmas a century ago because they also face making decisions in a turbulent world while sifting through contradictory news and changing wisdom.
For grades 7-12. Paperback. 238 pages. 2017, Indiana Historical Society Press. By Mary Blair Immel.