Perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Malinda Lo, this YA historical fiction debut the explores the little-known efforts of the women’s suffrage movement through the eyes of a young woman learning to raise her voice
Lily has never questioned her future. In 1917 Washington, D.C., there’s little possibility for her after high school beyond a quick engagement to her (charming, handsome) boyfriend and starting a family of her own.
But her carefully plotted life is forever changed when her brother is conscripted into the army, and Lily’s family rents his room to Charlotte, a young nurse. Charlotte is in Washington to do more than just to help with medical checks for soldiers—she’s come as a suffragist to fight for women’s right to vote. Though Lily is oblivious to Charlotte’s activities at first, they become impossible to ignore as Lily learns of the violence the women endure while picketing in front of the White House.
As Lily becomes more and more frustrated by her limited options, by the fact that the country views her as lesser than, she’ll have to decide if raising her voice is worth risking everything—including her life.
Set against the backdrop of WWI and the Night of Terror at Occoquan prison, where the imprisoned suffragists were beaten and tortured, Mind Not the Timid brings a little-known moment in the history of women’s suffrage to life.