Winter Reading 2017 Frontier Grit

The introduction offers a definition of the term frontier - "a place where rules are still being worked out and negotiated - it is space available to anyone, not only the powerful players of the past." So Monson has taken twelve women from various backgrounds who all were a part of the westward frontier of the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than focusing on men, from any ethnic or cultural group, she chose a variety of frontierswomen who did everything from running a laundry, to being a doctor, writing novels, running hotels, even driving a stage coach.

Each section discusses one of these women, sharing information about where she was born, to why she traveled west, and where her life ended. The highs and lows of each life are described, and many of the accomplishments will leave modern readers astonished at how much could be done with so little. We live in a time of plentiful resources and opportunities, and young readers will be amazed time and again by these amazing pioneers. A helpful aspect of the way the information is presented is that the author reserves her own reactions and interpretations for a final few paragraphs at the end of each biography. Readers have the chance to from their own opinions before reading the author's, and then they can decide if they agree or disagree.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through edelweiss.