The Taxing Case of the Cows: A True Story About Suffrage - Hardcover

Iris Van Rynbach has written and illustrated numerous children's books, and her work has appeared on the cover of The New Yorker magazine.She lives in Glastonbury, Connecticut, where the Smith sisters' farm was located. Visit her at www.irisvanrynbach.com.

Pegi Deitz Shea, a recipient of the Connecticut Book Award, has written many children's books. She lives in Rockville, Connecticut. Her web site is www.pegideitzshea.com.

Emily Arnold McCully received the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. The illustrator of more than 40 books for young readers, she divides her time between Chatham, New York, and New York City.

Gr 1-3–Starting in 1869, two sisters from Glastonbury, CT, protested against taxation without representation. Female property owners were not allowed to vote or speak in town meetings, yet were taxed at a higher rate than their male counterparts. When Abby and Julia Smith refused to pay, their prized cows were seized. The story about these smart and resourceful women is laced with humor as the cows go back and forth, but after a while, the account loses focus. The dramatic tension fizzles when the text becomes more a series of episodes from the sisters' lives than a sharp, cohesive narrative. The concept of taxation is not explained so children may need some background to understand the ongoing conflict. The watercolor illustrations are in McCully's signature style, but the execution is somewhat looser than in her earlier work. There is a sketchy, unfinished quality to some of the pictures, and the cow parts do not always add up to whole animals. The spreads work well, but the single-page illustrations and insets do not flow easily, giving the book a static quality.–Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.