Kerrie Hollihan

Kerrie Hollihan

nonfiction author :: wonder(ing) woman

Louisine Lights a Legacy by Kerrie Logan Hollihan and Julie Benbassat
Asteroid marching across Tadpole Nebula

Louisine Lights a Legacy

How Louisine Havemeyer Fired Up Women’s Suffrage

illustrated by Julie Benbassat
Abrams Books for Young Readers, February 9, 2027
40 pages, age 7 and up
ISBN 978-1-41977-440-9

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illustration from Louisine Lights a Legacy by Kerrie Logan Hollihan and Julie Benbassat
illustration © Julie Benbassat from Louisine Lights a Legacy, written by Kerrie Logan Hollihan, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2027

In February 1919, Louisine Havemeyer led 100 women to picket in front of the White House. They were suffragists, marching for women’s right to vote.

Louisine had been fortunate to grow up in a middle-class family that supported women’s education. As she became friends with forward-thinkers like the painter Mary Cassatt, Louisine’s worldview broadened ― and her voice grew louder.

Celebrating an influential suffragist, Louisine Lights a Legacy tells the story of an unsung trailblazer who forged her own path and brightly fought for her beliefs.

Back matter includes brief bios of other suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch, Hattie Quinn Brown, Frederick Douglass, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Mary Church Terrell, Nina Otero-Warren, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Zitkala-Ša.

Behind the Book

Experience the bravery and wiliness of this woman who counted Mary Cassatt among her friends, built an incredible art collection that she and her husband donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and perhaps most powerfully contributed her words and will to American women’s efforts to add the right for women to vote to the Constitution.

I was so intrigued by Louisine when I researched her for my book Rightfully Ours: How Women Won the Vote that I decided to delve deeper into her life and share her true story with you.

Reviews

“Elizabeth I is a towering figure in both British and world history, and this book does a good job of explaining why….The writing is clear and suited to readers with no previous knowledge of the topic… succeeds at being interesting and scholarly at the same time.” (School Library Journal)

“This attractive entry in the For Kids series offers 21 activities to supplement the text and provide a sense of what Elizabethan England was all about.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“For either individual learners or a classroom setting, the facts and chronology are easy to understand and give a broad picture of not only the Queen but what life was like for all people of England at that time.” (Ohioana Quarterly)

Meet Louisine Havemeyer

  • Louisine Havemeyer, 1896, painted by Mary Cassatt
    Louisine Havemeyer, 1896, painted by Mary Cassatt [Wikimedia Commons]