Ballots for Belva: The True Story of a Woman's Race for the Presidency
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Named to the 2009 Amelia Bloomer List
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2008
Download a free Teacher's Guide
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From BOOKLIST
“As a girl, Belva Lockwood learned that she couldn’t move mountains, but as a woman, she challenged gender roles in nineteenth-century America as the first woman lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court and the first woman to ‘officially’ run for president. This picture-book biography includes these highlights as well as a few of Lockwood’s interesting characteristics, such as her use of a tricycle to navigate Washington, D.C. It also gives a good overview of the politics of the era and points out the irony that a woman could run for president at a time when women could not yet vote.”
BALLOTS FOR BELVA teacher’s guide now available! Click here for fun, cross-curricular activities that address the following learning standards:
Reading Comprehension, strategies and vocabulary development
√ Activate prior knowledge to anticipate what will be read or heard.
√ Use prior knowledge to make sense of text.
√ Comprehend common and/or specific vocabulary in informational texts and literature.
√ Respond to text by using how, why, and what-if questions.
√ Make inferences and support them with textual information.
√ Cite evidence from text to support conclusions.
√ Clarify meanings of words using the glossary.
Speaking
√ Speak for a variety of audiences and purposes.
√ Adapt language to persuade.
Writing
√ Write for a variety of purposes (e.g., to inform, entertain, persuade) and audiences (e.g., self, peers, community).
√ Write paragraphs using topic sentences (early grades).
√ Write informational compositions with multiple paragraphs that present important ideas, provide details, and offer a concluding paragraph (upper grades).
Performing Arts √ Portray characters in creative drama.
Civics
√ Identify community and government leaders (e.g., President of the United States).
√ Recognize real people and fictional characters who have demonstrated responsible leadership and citizenship and identify the characteristics that have made them good examples.
History
√ Organize events in a time line.
√ Identify the types of transportation used to move goods and people.
Math
√ Read, interpret, construct, and analyze displays of data using tally charts, bar graphs, and Venn diagrams.
√ Construct meanings for numbers, including proper fractions.
(Teacher’s Guide Created By: Cassandra Reigel Whetstone; standards compiled from the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards by Natalie Dias Lorenzi)
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From KIRKUS
“In 1884 Belva Lockwood ran for president, although as women she and her female running mate could not vote. She actually received some history-making votes in the election that Grover Cleveland won (and, in fact, he may well have carried New York thanks to misapplied Lockwood votes). The path to the 1884 election was not smooth: Widowed and remarried with a daughter, Belva went to law school where she was not allowed to take classes with men and where her degree was withheld until she wrote to President Grant, who was also president of the law school, and demanded her diploma. She was the first woman to practice law in federal courts and the first to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Bardhan-Quallen’s simply told narrative argues effectively for Lockwood's place in history books.”
From SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
“Starting with an anecdote in which 10-year-old Belva Lockwood tried to ‘move a mountain,’ this picture-book biography introduces the woman who ran for president more than a century ago. That mountain-moving determination emerges as the recurring theme of her public life as she obtained a law degree, fought for equal rights, and ultimately became the first woman to receive certified votes during her 1884 presidential campaign. The book focuses largely on that presidential run, though many of Lockwood’s other accomplishments are mentioned, such as arguing a case before the Supreme Court and her trendsetting use of an early version of a tricycle. A closing author’s note and a time line fill in more details. The narrative generally provides just enough information to convey Lockwood’s achievements and the challenges she faced. Though groundbreaking, her candidacy inspired opposition and ridicule, not just from men, but from women and even other suffragists. Quotes from Lockwood and others enliven the text. Her letter to President Grant regarding the denial of her law school diploma, for example, neatly demonstrates her polite but forceful personality. Handsome illustrations clearly set the time and place, and Lockwood’s fortitude comes through in her posture and facial expressions. She is an appealing historical figure, and, with little available about her for younger readers, this is an especially timely and useful biography.”
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