Reviews

Write On, Mercy! The Secret Life of Mercy Otis Warren by Gretchen Woelfle, Alexandra Wallner

muddypuddle's review

5.0

This was an exceptionally fine story about a really interesting person – of the female persuasion – in our history. The writing is beautiful and sophisticated, the story well-researched and finely told. A keeper. Perfect for my 4th grade biography unit.

nerfherder86's review

3.0

Charming picture book about a woman writer whom I had never heard of: Mercy Otis Warren. She lived during the 18th century, in Massachusetts, and wrote political (Patriot) poetry and plays during the Revolutionary War. Later she wrote a three volume history of the American Revolution, taking thirty years to finish it. The writing of this book is a little choppy, jumping from scene to scene without transitions, but it's a nice simplification of her life and the complexities of being a wife and mother and running a household, supporting her husband while he was in George Washington's army, while secretly writing and having an intellectual life in a time when women were not expected to. Illustrations are flat, primary colors, primitive style.

wordnerd153's review

3.0

Interesting subject matter and good text to share with students who are studying the American Revolution, but the writing seems awkward at times and a tad slow. Students will need support deciphering the formal quotations included on many of the pages.