USA Today chose Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass as one of four recommended picture books for Black History Month.
The stylish ‘Two Friends’ imagines the meeting between two great progressive minds of the 19th century. When writer/orator Frederick Douglass joins abolitionist Susan B. Anthony at her home for tea, he learns of her fighting an educational system that doesn’t grant equal access to women, and in turn recounts the hardship of his enslaved childhood. The two activists share a goal: expanding the right to vote. Given such weighty material, ‘Two Friends’ is remarkably light on its feet, the composition of the pages lively and dynamic and the political figures rendered with high-beam charm. The book takes the time to note what the characters are wearing (“Susan wore a kind of pants called ‘bloomers.’ / She liked them better than the heavy dresses / women were supposed to wear.”), wisely indulging kids’ interests in both the superficial and the political.
