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A review by panda_incognito
Charlotte Spies for Justice: A Civil War Survival Story by Nikki Shannon Smith
3.0
This installment of the Girls Survive series is very suspenseful, and there are lots of well-researched details related to the setting and what the main character would have experienced if she had really existed. I especially like how the author connected her fictional main character to real-life women spies from the Civil War, tying in this story with true events.
I would like to give this book four stars, but I'm giving it a lower rating for dangerous historical oversimplification. In most cases, it doesn't matter to water down history a little bit for kids, because you don't want to make it too difficult for them to understand, but this book's glowing portrayal of the Union as anti-slavery gives the Union and its leaders far too much credit. This kind of misrepresentation can make Black kids feel betrayed later, and can make white kids more vulnerable to seeing the Confederate cause in a sympathetic light, since they can discover how badly books from their childhood distorted the truth.
Ultimately, the Civil War was about slavery, but individual motivations for fighting varied, and the Union did not go to war to eradicate slavery. Instead, the Union went to war to preserve the nation after states seceded and joined the Confederacy. This book's portrayal of all Union soldiers as anti-slavery, and of the Civil War as a righteous crusade, is misguided. At first, I wanted to excuse this as the protagonist's limited and hopeful perspective, but the author's note did nothing to nuance this portrayal. There were many, many Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War as a a righteous crusade, but equating the Union to the abolitionist cause is misleading and untrue. Slavery was still legal in some Northern states, and some Union generals owned slaves.
This book is an exciting, educational glimpse into a major turning point in American history, and kids who like spy stories and historical fiction will enjoy this. However, I can't give it the glowing recommendation that I would like to because of the author's misleading representation of the past. I'm not sure if she was just trying to make history seem more welcoming to kids of color, or if she was writing based on her own lack of understanding, but painting the North and the South in such broad, sweeping, Good Guys vs. Bad Guys strokes is misleading and potentially damaging. I would encourage parents who are reading this with their kids to provide additional context and learn more about the war with them.
I would like to give this book four stars, but I'm giving it a lower rating for dangerous historical oversimplification. In most cases, it doesn't matter to water down history a little bit for kids, because you don't want to make it too difficult for them to understand, but this book's glowing portrayal of the Union as anti-slavery gives the Union and its leaders far too much credit. This kind of misrepresentation can make Black kids feel betrayed later, and can make white kids more vulnerable to seeing the Confederate cause in a sympathetic light, since they can discover how badly books from their childhood distorted the truth.
Ultimately, the Civil War was about slavery, but individual motivations for fighting varied, and the Union did not go to war to eradicate slavery. Instead, the Union went to war to preserve the nation after states seceded and joined the Confederacy. This book's portrayal of all Union soldiers as anti-slavery, and of the Civil War as a righteous crusade, is misguided. At first, I wanted to excuse this as the protagonist's limited and hopeful perspective, but the author's note did nothing to nuance this portrayal. There were many, many Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War as a a righteous crusade, but equating the Union to the abolitionist cause is misleading and untrue. Slavery was still legal in some Northern states, and some Union generals owned slaves.
This book is an exciting, educational glimpse into a major turning point in American history, and kids who like spy stories and historical fiction will enjoy this. However, I can't give it the glowing recommendation that I would like to because of the author's misleading representation of the past. I'm not sure if she was just trying to make history seem more welcoming to kids of color, or if she was writing based on her own lack of understanding, but painting the North and the South in such broad, sweeping, Good Guys vs. Bad Guys strokes is misleading and potentially damaging. I would encourage parents who are reading this with their kids to provide additional context and learn more about the war with them.