She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! - Kathryn Lasky, David Catrow
A really surprisingly fantastic book – an educational and entertaining look at how the Audubon Society was formed and how it was linked in many ways to the women’s suffrage movement.

In the 1890s Bostonian (is that the right term?) Harriet Hemenway was appalled to notice that the newest fashion in Boston involves ornate hates topped with rare and exotic stuffed birds – REAL birds. So Harriett and her friends (male and female) get together and form a group whose original aim was to protect birds. Soon enough they found the group growing and conducting successful letter writing campaigns to effect changes in legislation. And what was interesting was that “In the club everybody was equal. The women and the men of the society wrote up their ideas together….”

Overall, this is a fantastic story about how people can turn passion into action and initiative and effect real change in the world. The illustrations are fantastic – vivid, hysterical and very detailed. I know some of my friends might laugh at this review as my dislike of our beaked and feathered friends is well known. But just because I don’t want one as a pet (or anywhere near me) doesn’t mean I want one stuffed on a hat!