Things A Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls
Published by Andersen Press
LEARNING about World War One at school would always involve time spent on the suffrage movement. It would be impossible not to mention the movement that was growing every day in the time leading up to this war. These lessons were always my favourite ones, the brave suffragettes and suffragists, and all the groups among them, that came together to campaign in their different ways.
The story of Things A Bright Girl Can Do is set in London in 1914 and focuses on three main characters, alternating between the lives of the young girls and their differing involvements in the women’s suffrage movement.
Evelyn, the eldest of the three at nearly 18 has been angry all her life at how everything seems to be set out for her, with no room for choice as to the path she’ll take. This anger finds direction when she first finds herself lingering to listen to a suffragette speaking to a crowd. She soon becomes involved, taking part in increasingly risky actions that concern Teddy, who has proposed to marry her, and the family who don’t understand her desire to attend Oxford and get a degree like her brother.
The other two girls are 15 and are entirely different to each other with Nell, a suffragette working in a factory to keep her family out of poverty, and May, a suffragist with a pacifist mother.
Despite these differences, and perhaps partly due to them, they develop feelings for each other and navigate what that means in relation to personal identity and how others may perceive them because of it.
There is distinct progression in character for all three of them – separate from each other but linked to the movement.
Evelyn,having to look beyond the blinding anger to see what’s important to her without the unwelcome opinions of others, Nell’s discovery there are people like her and disillusionment with the concept of war after having to provide for her family when her father leaves, and the limits of May’s pacifism when it comes to a cause this important.
This is a book that takes time with its female characters, centring them and making their strength three dimensional in a way that is not seen nearly enough in books aimed at teenagers.
The stories of young women here are properly acknowledged and explored. They are relatable because of their youth but they remain role models in their courage.
These are the kinds of characters we should all be reading about, and the kind to become invested in and spend time on. I would recommend this book if only for the way Sally Nicholls writes. In her style there is enough connection for modern readers to keep them interested while never losing the setting and the perfect balance between the political actions of the girls and their lives that are constantly impacted by their lack of freedoms.
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