Away With Words

The Daring Story
of Isabella Bird

Peachtree Publishers
(pub. 3.1.2019) 
36 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lori Mortensen
 and illustrator: Kristy Caldwell 
 
C haracter: Isabella Bird

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "Isabella Bird ... had to explore.
     That was easier said than done in nineteenth-century England.  But somehow Isabella persisted, and with each journey, she breathed in new ways to see and describe everything around her.
     Question by question, word by word, Isabella bloomed.
     First, out in the English countryside.
     Then, off to America and Canada.
     And eventually, around the world, to Africa, Asia, Australia, and more.
     Always more - more places, more questions, more words - and all those experiences became books, in which she described the land she traveled, the people she met, and the dangers she experienced, to a fascinated audience who could only dream of such travels and adventures.
     And finally, Isabella returned home to England, where she became the first female member of the Royal Geographic Society an was presented to Queen Victoria.
     But to wild-vine Isabella, the world was home."
    

T antalizing taste:  

     "Each voyage tested her mettle. Each place revealed something new.
     In the Sandwich Islands, Isabella traded her skirt for bloomerlike full Turkish trousers and clambered up Kilauea, a towering, lava-spewing volcano. Up until then, she'd always worn a skirt and ridden sidesaddle - the ladylike way to ride. But concessions had to be made to climb a volcano."

And something more: The Author's Note in AWAY WITH WORDS explained that "Isabella Bird grew up during the Victorian Age. Although her parents taught her French, literature, history, art, scriptures, Latin, and botany at home, society offered little opportunity for her or any other women of the era. The longer Isabella remained at home, the more depressed she became and the worse her symptoms grew. Once she sailed away from England, her spirit soared."