14 chapters, 850 words, reading level 4rd grade, read aloud for all ages.
There are many mysteries and secrets brewing in 11-year-old Susan’s life. The new boarder is not what she seems. Susan is secretly pretending to be a boy in order to work shining shoes to help the family’s financial woes. Mum goes off to visit a relative and disappears. The year is 1914. The setting is New York City, but the message is one of national importance because, behind it all is the inspiring inside story of the movement to earn the right to vote for women. And earn it they did. Without firing a single shot, women won the vote, changing our democracy forever. For 150 years our country excluded more than half of the population. In reading this story, students will learn how this changed only after one of the most remarkable and successful nonviolent efforts the world has ever seen. The woman suffrage movement is a record of the experiences of ordinary citizens like the characters in this story. It’s vital that students learn more about this history in order to appreciate and understand the value of democracy. The suffrage story is just like this serial - a dramatic tale filled with intrigue, dedication, frustration, commitment, success and failure.

About the Author: Elizabeth McDavid Jones Jones is the author of five historical novels from the acclaimed American Girl HISTORY MYSTERY series. In 2000, she received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for the THE NIGHT FLYERS (1999). Her latest release, GHOST LIGHT ON GRAVEYARD SHOAL (2003), was an Agatha Award finalist. When she isn’t writing, “Liz” stays busy with her four children, her “surfin’” husband, and a very large, unruly, brown dog.

About the Illustrator: Alexandra Tebow was born in Palo Alto, CA. She became a Girl Scout in first grade and became a Lifetime Member at the age of 18 when she also achieved the Girl Scout Gold Award. Her project was a mural painting program at her high school to help combat graffiti. After high school she became a Council Trainer for San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council specializing in training new Girl Scout leaders in Advanced Arts & Crafts and beginning camping skills. At Ohlone College in Fremont, CA, she studied Fine Art and photography and fell in love with art history. Later she entered the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she completed her degree in Illustration/2D Animation. Her love of art history still influences her work.