In a stunning debut 12 years in the making, JoAnna Lapati's intricately illustrated picture book biography of Rosetta Wakeman, Guts for Glory, presents a singular account of secretive military history through arresting artwork and the subject's own words.
In 1862, as the Civil War raged on, 19-year-old Rosetta Wakeman tired of monotonous chores on her family's farm. "She wanted something... different. She wanted something more." Cutting off her hair, binding her chest, and sneaking out under the dark of night, Wakeman took the first name Lyons and assumed a new life as a man. Wakeman put her disguise to quick work and, within days, enlisted in the Union army. Settling into training and eventually participating in the 1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana, Wakeman held her secret close but confided to her family through letters until her death from dysentery in 1864.
Lapati uses scratchboard, evocative of 19th-century wood engravings, and digitally tints the period-authentic drawings in crisp military blues and atmospheric sepias. The detail Lapati achieves in this notoriously demanding medium is gasp-inducing; each line of Rosetta's hands is etched with the utmost precision. The endpapers alone justify this purchase, but backmatter notably reveals that Rosetta "is the only female soldier whose letters represent a woman's point of view during the Civil War." Lyons's handwriting peppers the artwork with her missives excerpted in text. Extensive backmatter includes research bolstered by Lapati's participation in Civil War reenactment groups.
This title, amplifying women's role within Civil War military history, is a natural precursor to Erica Armstrong Dunbar's 2023 Susie King Taylor and a technically staggering artistic debut. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf