Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Away with Words: The Daring Story of Isabella Bird by Lori Mortensen




This picture book biography of Isabella Bird describes her as “a wild vine stuck in a too-small pot.” Author Lori Mortensen could not have come up with a better description of a curious young woman during the Victorian era. The text shares Isabella’s health problems as a small child and how curiosity about the world she saw from the back of her father’s horse helped her to “forget about her aches and pains.” Her eventual journeys around the world led to fame for her travel books and even membership as the first woman in London’s Royal Geographic Society. Digital illustrations show details of the era's fashions, as well as scenes from Isabella’s adventures - like climbing up Kilauea. A photo of Isabella accompanies the author’s note. There is also a timeline, bibliography, and a source list for all the quotations from Isabella’s writing that are incorporated into the book. This title would be a good addition to a unit on pioneering women, or for a discussion of societal expectations then and now. VERDICT: An engaging biography for intermediate grades about following your joy and finding your own place in the world.

My review was first published in the February 2019 issue of School Library Journal, pp. 81-82.

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