Independent Dames is a great book for looking at America’s fight for independence from a somewhat different perspective. In the book, the author explains that all that is taught in American History is the role that the famous and historical men played. What about the women?! The book is a series of different ways women impacted the nations history. On the top half of the page, the author introduces a woman, and gives a brief description of the actions taken by this woman that impacted history. At the bottom of each page throughout the book is an on-going timeline from 1763 to 1865. The information in the time line coordinates with the example of woman’s influence given on the page. For example, “Nine-year-old Susan Boudinot and her mother were served tea at the mansion of the royal governor of New Jersey. Susan curtsied politely and pretended to sip. Then she threw the tea out the window.” In the timeline at the bottom of the page you can read about how British goods were boycotted by the Americans. At the end of the book, you can read a few notes from the author, where she explains that many of the stories of revolutionary girls and women were passed down by word of mouth, and therefore the accuracy of some of the stories cannot be verified. It does however do a terrific job of giving women and girls a place within the predominantly male history. Even though the book is not completely non-fiction, it is full of facts pertaining to American History, and these facts are presented in an interesting and comical way, making the learning fun and somewhat more meaningful to the students. This book would be great as a read aloud, or an independent or group read for students to gather information on American History.
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