In this inspiring picture book biography, Tanya Lee Stone (Courage Has No Color) traces the making of an American hero, from her innate wish for justice as a child to her role in its fulfillment as an adult.
At six, Jane Addams realized that "not everyone lived like her family did" and vowed to "find a way to fix the world." During a trip to Europe as a young woman, she visited London's Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house, where well-off people lived alongside the less affluent. She became determined to replicate the idea and founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889. Kathryn Brown's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations blend humor and realism: a woman in an apron waves a rolling pin at a child absconding with a baguette. Many of her neighbors' houses had no running water, so Jane installed a public bath. She convinced a wealthy man to donate land for a playground. Images of happy children playing on swings balance the dire situations at home. Jane set up a morning kindergarten and after-school clubs so children wouldn't be unsupervised. By 1907, the Hull House had grown into 13 buildings; Brown's half-tone panel illustrations, orbiting a full-color stage, offer windows into many of them (children performing, making music, drawing, baking). Endnotes attribute all direct quotes and mention Addams as the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1931.
Children will see that they, like Jane Addams, can realize their dreams of helping to better the world. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness