When Rosetta Wakeman left New York to fight in the Civil War, she never thought she would end up in Louisiana, dead of dysentery. Joining the fight as Lyons Wakeman, she was never discovered to be a woman. The money she earned was sent back home to support her family. Actual letters she wrote were used in this book.
I wish I could express better just how much I love this book! It begins with end papers in the front that show what a Civil War soldier would carry with them. That peaks a reader's interest, but on the back end papers, the tools are numbered and inside an explanation is given of each one! A selected bibliography is included as are permissions from Rosetta Wakeman's family, the previous works on her, and even thanks to the cemetery where she is buried. Such attention to detail is highly unusual in a children's picture book. A glossary and timeline are included. An author's note explains more details. Perhaps most interesting of all, an illustrator's note tells about the careful research and ways the drawings were begun and done on scratchboard. And, the illustrations are expressive and delicate in the midst of the subject matter.
And, to top everything, the author/illustrator not only carefully researched the places mentioned in the book, she spent six years as a Civil War reinactor, dressed as Rosetta Wakeman would have been. The authentic details came not only through careful research, but through actually coming as close to living a soldier's life as possible in modern times.
While I researched Civil War women for Beyond the Battlefied and A Country's Call, both quilt books by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene with small vignettes about Civil War women, I read many books. None of the children's picture books show such passion and dedication to detail as this one. Hopefully, nonfiction committees will not overlook it!
