No Girls Allowed
In the fifth book of the Young Heroes of History series, set during the American Civil War, two strong-willed Northern girls find a way to help with the war effort. Sixteen-year-old Lynn Rhodes, rough-and-tumble and always good in a scrape, disguises herself as a boy and fights alongside her twin brother. Fourteen-year-old Mary Adams joins an aid society and earns a place nursing the wounded. Their paths cross when Lynn is injured in battle and sent to the hospital where Mary works. Can Mary help her keep her secret?
This series is targeted to middle readers, ages 11-15, and is intended to teach history as well as entertain. In this particular volume, the war is used primarily as context for the social history so rather than bloody battlefields the reader sees women packing boxes of supplies and soldiers playing the new game of baseball. The author briefly introduces historical figures such as Clara Barton and Cornelius Welles. The book is lightly footnoted and has a bibliography. The author’s website contains free lesson plans for educators.
This is an interesting book that places its focus squarely on the issue of women’s roles in the Civil War. While the plot is fairly predictable and some of the dialogues tend toward the preachy, it is a great book for its intended purpose: showing that girls have always found ways to do their part when boys have insisted “no girls allowed.”
