Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics

Gr 6 Up—In this collective biography, Atwood chronicles the wartime exploits of 16 distinctive women from the United States, Europe, and Australia. The book is well balanced, covering women from the Central and Allied powers. Content is organized by the type of job the women performed—and there were many: resisters and spies, medical personnel, soldiers, and journalists. Their great contributions are made more vivid with Atwood's engaging narrative. Shepoints out that while there were ideological, social, and economic differences among the women, there was also a commonality uniting them: patriotism. Readers get an idea of the intensity of these women's fervors through the quotes from diaries, letters, and interviews. Gabrielle Petit, a young woman who worked as a spy for Belgium, wrote in a letter, "My country! I did not think enough of it! I almost ignored it. I did not see that I loved her. But since [the enemies] torment her, the monsters, I see her everywhere. I breathe her in the streets of the city, in the shadow of our palace…she lives in me, I live in her. I will die for her singing." Woven throughout the stories is the larger history of the war itself—the causes, battles won and lost, and outcomes. Occasional black-and-white archival photographs, especially those depicting the women, add interest and immediacy.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC