TLC Book Tour: Clarina Nichols

March is Women's History Month, and Clarina Nichols: Frontier Crusader for Women's Rights by Diane Eickhoff, is a great biography about a woman in the past who helped pave the way for women today.

Clarina Nichols is not a name I had ever heard before I sat down with her biography.  (And, just for the record, I did ask a few friends if they had heard of her, but they, too, were clueless).  However, she was an important woman from the 1800s who helped women achieve equal rights.  Her contemporaries were Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer, women I was familiar with already. Learning about her life was interesting and informative.

This biography begins with Clarina's childhood and her parents' belief in educating all their children, not just their sons.  Although Clarina's first marriage did not allow her to use her talents or pursue a career, after her marriage ended, her second husband was a bit unconventional and encouraged Clarina in her writing and speaking about women's rights.

Clarina became a popular advocate for women and as she and her family moved to Kansas, leaving their extended families behind in the East, she continued her push for women's rights.

Eickhoff's biography of this little known woman is well researched and easy to read.  This is well suited to middle grade readers, even though I, as an adult, enjoyed it immensely.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing a review copy of this book.  The opinions I've expressed are as always, my own.