Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

All Virgie wants is to go to school with her brothers George, Will, Nelson, Val, and C. C. But they keep saying she's too little for the long, seven-mile walk, and that girls don't need school.Well, Virgie doesn't agree, and she's not gonna let anything stand in her way.

About the author

Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard grew up hearing stories of her grandfather’s childhood from her mother and later visited Jonesborough, Tennessee, a town seven miles from where her grandfather grew up. There, she drew inspiration for stories of her own.

Summary

This luminous and energetic picture book follows a young boy who takes his younger sister on her first trip to school in the Reconstruction-era South.

“Papa, Mama, can I go too?”

Virgie was always begging to go to school with us boys. My brothers had doubts. School was seven miles away—a long way from Mama. Virgie was scarcely big as a field mouse. How could she make the trip? And girls didn’t really need school.

But I got to thinking: Virgie was free like we were. Free to learn. And didn’t girls need to know how to write and add, too? Mama and Papa thought so. And one summer, they decided to do something about it. That was the year Virgie came to school with us boys. And she sure showed us!

Product details

• Authors: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
• Assisted by: E B Lewis (Illustration), E. B. Lewis (Illustration), E.B. Lewis (Illustration)
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 6 to 8
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.02.2000
• EAN: 9780689800764
• ISBN: 978-0-689-80076-4
• No. of pages: 32
• Dimensions: 223 mm x 276 mm x 9 mm
• Weight: 386 g
• Subject: Children's and young people's books