Doing Her Bit

Doing Her Bit A Story About the Woman's Land Army of America By: Erin Hagar / Illustrated by: Jen Hill Helen wants to help. Helen Stevens did her bit for the war effort by becoming a farmerette—a woman trained to farm while men were serving overseas during WWI. Beginning as a movement to put women to work on farms in place of men serving overseas during WWI, the Woman's Land Army grew to be an integral part of the food supply chain during the war. Doing Her Bit follows one "farmerette," Helen Stevens, as she trains, convinces a farmer to employ her and other women, negotiates fair wages, and does her bit to support the war effort. If you like this book, you’ll enjoy these: Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space [TABS] Look Inside Author & Illustrator Erin Hagar, author Erin Hagar holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the middle-grade biography, Julia Child: An Extraordinary Life in Words and Pictures (Duo Press). Read more about Erin. Jen Hill, illustrator Jen Hill is the illustrator of The Boy with the Pink Hair (Celebra) by Perez Hilton, as well as the author and illustrator of Percy and TumTum: A Tale of Two Dogs (Running Press). She has worked in children's television for almost twenty years and is a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. Read more about Jen. Awards & Honors Coming soon! Editorial Reviews Kirkus Reviews Based on real events and people, Hagar's story follows college student Helen Stevens during the summer of 1917 as the white "New York City college girl" learns farming to support the war effort. As allies in war-torn Europe struggled with food scarcity despite U.S. supplies, American men trained as soldiers or moved from farms to factories. The Woman's Land Army of America recruited and trained women to work on farms. Helen, who yearns to do more than roll bandages and knit socks for soldiers, enrolls in the Women's Agricultural Camp in Bedford, New York, despite her parents' disapproval. She and other "farmerettes" learn to whitewash a dairy, fence a coop, milk cows, and drive a tractor. Ida Ogilvie, the camp's director, convinces dubious farmer Davie to give Helen, Alice, and Harriet a day's unpaid trial. At day's end, he directs them to return to test their work with livestock. Helen digs in, saying, "If you want us back tomorrow, it'll be two dollars a day for each of us." Hill's Photoshopped gouache paintings, in a palette of green, gray-brown, gold, and pink, use flat color and simple contours to depict fields, workers, and pastel summer skies. Characters are white, perhaps reflecting the camp's composition. Crisp dialogue and small dramas propel this story of a young woman's summer of service in wartime and women's emerging power on the homefront. School Library Journal During World War I, the Women's Land Army (WLA) was formed to assist with farming duties while male farmhands were off fighting in the war. These women became known as "farmerettes." This title follows Helen Stevens and her decision to join the WLA. The narrative jumps right into the action with Helen seeing a WLA poster on the street and deciding to join. This could be a potentially confusing moment for readers unfamiliar with World War I and the status of American women in the early 20th century, While a cutaway to a dinner scene in which Helen's family tries to dissuade her from joining does hint at the inequality women faced ("No farmer in his right mind would hire you girls"), why her father would say this is not discussed. The WLA and Helen's experience farming are the central focus of the work and, in comparison, are better developed. The hard physical labor the women endured in addition to the discrimination they faced is highlighted. The illustrations, done in gouache and Adobe Photoshop, are colorful and detailed; the folk art feel and light brushstrokes lend well to the time period and plot. The author does note that she embellished much of the details and dialogue within the book. An additional selection for elementary school history buffs looking for lesser-known World War I-era stories. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books It was 1917 and America had just entered the great European war; men were enlisting or working in munitions factories, citizens on the homefront were trimming their diets to provide food for the army overseas, and American agriculture was overtaxed and undermanned. Uncle Sam put out the call for young women to keep up the farms—plowing, planting, harvesting, mending fences, managing livestock—and women like Helen Stevens, a college student from New York, signed on for training. Trading demure clothing for sagging overalls and smooth hands for blistered and calloused palms, the women spent weeks acquiring farm skills, only to be faced with skepticism by the very farmers who could benefit from their services. This picture book, based on Stevens’ first year of Woman’s Land Army experience, encapsulates the determination and physical hardship that turned city women into “farmerettes” as well as the opportunity and freedom that opened for young women (even women from farms) who would otherwise have been constrained by family expectations. Hill’s gouache paintings focus on many of the skills the trainees needed to master, but slightly cartooned expressions make the enterprise seem jollier than it may have been. Photograph endpapers of the WLA wielding hoes and plows are a fine supplement, though, and Hagar’s note and bibliography, together with strategies for online searching, will assist readers in fleshing out the tale. The Horn Book Magazine In 1917, proper New York City college girl Helen Stevens joins the Woman's Land Army of America to "do her bit" for the war effort. Her white-linens-and-fine-china farewell luncheon sets the story's tone, as Helen waves off her mother's fretting "as if she were swatting a pesky fly. 'I'll be fine,' she said." At the Women's Agricultural Camp in Bedford, New York, Helen and other "farmettes" trade their dresses for overalls and get to work under the guidance of tough director Ida Ogilvie. While, indeed, "blisters turned into calluses," finding men who would hire them to do farm work was more challenging. But, thanks to Ida, Helen and her fellow farmettes do get hired—and for men's wages (well, after they prove their worth and stand up for themselves). This WWI home front story "based on real events and real people" uses invented dialogue and details in a homespun narrative that gets to the heart of an important moment in feminist history. Hill's gouache illustrations in a tawny palette are full of Rosie the Riveter-esque images of women hard at work—just doing their bit—in pastoral landscapes. An informative author's note, a bibliography, and internet-search recommendations are appended; the endpapers display WWI Woman's Land Army posters and sepia photos of the real farmettes. A century later, when equal pay for equal work is still not guaranteed, this book my empower readers to start discussions about feminism and women's roles throughout history. Downloadables Download the Cover Details Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58089-646-7 E-book ISBN: 978-1-60734-872-6 EPUB ISBN: 978-1-60734-873-3 PDF Ages: 6-9 Page count: 32 11 x 8 1/2 [/TABS]