Reviews

Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss, John Hendrix

jennybeastie's review against another edition

4.0

Fantastic story -- Sarah Edmonds is quite amazing. The book is very graphically exciting, too -- yummy typefaces.

midnightbookgirl's review against another edition

4.0

Sarah Edmonds was kind of a Civil War era badass. She fled to the US from Canada when her parents tried too marry her off, where she lived as a man named Frank Thompson for 3 years. Eventually she joined the Union and became a spy, often using disguises to gather intelligence. She was highly successful until a bout of malaria forced her to sneak away from camp so she could get treated by a doctor as a woman. When she got better, she found out that Frank Thompson was wanted to desertion, so she returned to living life as a woman. She eventually married and continued to do good works, and is the only woman to be officially recognized as a Civil War vet and even got her pension with back pay!

maidmarianlib's review against another edition

4.0

Great content about a woman soldier in the Civil War. Reads very well. Illustrations are detailed but I'm not sure how I feel about the perspective which makes the heads seem to big.

annieliz's review against another edition

5.0

I liked this way more than I thought I would. I was expecting a typical "woman dresses as a man and does amazing things" type story, but Sarah Emma Edmonds did so much more! I think the writing and illustrations were both incredible.

stacys_books's review against another edition

5.0

A great introduction into a life we don't hear enough about--Sarah Edmonds, a woman who chose to live as a man before and during the Civil War. Cited for bravery, she was asked to spy on the South, and did so successfully. This short book chronicles her story, but she wrote her own.

zbayardo's review against another edition

4.0

A great fact to share with our students. Not many adults (including me!) know about Sarah Edmonds so kids and adults will love this book.

pussreboots's review against another edition

4.0

The book grows through her initial trouble in joining up because she looked too young (no facial hair) to at the end being taken because all that were left were the teenage (and possibly younger) boys. John Hendrix uses bold lines and hand drawn lettering inspired by historical typefaces to bring Marissa Moss's words to life. Hendrix's style reminds me of Nathan Hale's illustrated novels.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comments_06/nurse_soldier_spy.html

midnightbookgirl's review

4.0

Sarah Edmonds was kind of a Civil War era badass. She fled to the US from Canada when her parents tried too marry her off, where she lived as a man named Frank Thompson for 3 years. Eventually she joined the Union and became a spy, often using disguises to gather intelligence. She was highly successful until a bout of malaria forced her to sneak away from camp so she could get treated by a doctor as a woman. When she got better, she found out that Frank Thompson was wanted to desertion, so she returned to living life as a woman. She eventually married and continued to do good works, and is the only woman to be officially recognized as a Civil War vet and even got her pension with back pay!

luann's review

5.0

This is a fascinating account of the life of Sarah Emma Edmonds. I don't believe I had ever heard of her before, but she was quite the hero! She had been disguising herself as a man for three years before the Civil War started, so she was very good at it when she signed up to fight as a soldier for the North. This includes details of her work as a nurse and her first mission as a spy. I would have continued to enjoy this even if it had gone on and on with details about her life - it all sounds fascinating (based on details from the author's note). But I'm glad it isn't any longer than it is because I plan to use this in a library lesson next year during patriotic week.

This includes an author's note, an artist's note, a glossary, an author's bibliography, an artist's bibliography, and two photos of Sarah Emma Edmonds. I loved getting to see what she really looked like - both as a woman and a man.

I was also very interested to learn of Sarah Edmonds' memoir about her time as a soldier. I bet that would be a fascinating read!