Maria Takes a Stand: The Battle for Women's Rights (1914)

Sisters in Time #18

by Norma Jean Lutz

Time Period:  1914  1914 is a tough year for twelve-year-old Maria Schmidt. Ever since the Kaiser started a war in Europe, Maria's German-sounding surname has brought her trouble at school. Even worse, her family's been threatened because of her father's union activities. In the midst of all that, however, Maria finds a noble cause to support: woman's suffrage. Maria Takes a Stand uses actual historical events to tell a compelling fictional story-of a girl who must overcome personal hardships to serve a cause larger than herself. It's a perfect vehicle for teaching lessons of American history and the Christian faith.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, Christian Fiction, Middle Grade, Christian

139 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Norma Jean Lutz’s writing career began when she enrolled in a writing correspondence course. Since then, she has had over 250 short stories and articles published in both secular and Christian publications. The full-time writer is also the author of over 50 published books under her own name and many ghostwritten books. Her books have been favorably reviewed in Affair de Coeur, Coffee Time Romance, Romance Reader at Heart, and The Romance Studio magazines, and her short fiction has garnered a number of first prizes in local writing contests.

Norma Jean is the founder of the Professionalism In Writing School, which was held annually in Tulsa for fourteen years. This writers' conference, which closed its doors in 1996, gave many writers their start in the publishing world.

A gifted teacher, Norma Jean has taught a variety of writing courses at local colleges and community schools, and is a frequent speaker at writers' seminars around the country. For eight years, she taught on staff for the Institute of Children's Literature. She has served as artist-in-residence at grade schools, and for two years taught a staff development workshop for language arts teachers in schools in Northeastern Oklahoma.

As co-host for the Tulsa KNYD Road Show, she shared the microphone with Kim Spence to present the Road Show Book Club, a feature presented by the station for more than a year. She has also appeared in numerous interviews on KDOR-TV.

Norma Jean has brought out past out-of-print novels to create a new series. These teen novels (which she likes to call "Clean Teen Reads") were published in the 1980s and 90s, yet the story lines are timeless. Sporting new titles and new book covers, these books will become part of the "Norma Jean Lutz Classic Collection" series.

Her newest teen offering is Brought to You By the Color Drab. A story of a young man living in the ghetto who seemingly was born in the wrong place in the wrong time. This is a story of redemption!

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I can definitely both understand and personally, emotionally appreciate the struggles and hardships Maria has to face, her desire to help fight for women's rights (including suffrage), her frustrations at being a German American during WWI, when even having a German surname could easily and quickly bring both accusation and persecution (often resulting in being immediately considered a potential traitor or spy) I find, and yet again, that Maria Takes a Stand is another novel, another annoyingly frustrating historical fiction story where there is a heavy and in this instance truly almost painfully suffocating emphasis on Christianity, on religious messaging, on doing the so-called and all important "will of God" (and it, and the religious moralising really permeates Norma Jean Lutz' storyline, the presented narrative of Maria Takes a Stand to such a huge and massively frustrating extent that I actually ended up having to skim and skip over much of the novel's descriptions and events, as it was simply getting more and more infuriating, more and more nauseating, tediously preachy and annoying, and as such, no longer even remotely an enjoyable reading experience). Now if you are very devout, and perhaps even a bit of a fundamentalist with regard to Christianity, I guess you might actually enjoy Maria Takes a Stand, but I would generally not in any way recommend this novel otherwise. One star and not more than one star!!

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre Teens- Three Stars
New Teens- Three Stars
Early High School Teens- Three Stars
Older High School Teens- Three Stars
My personal Rating- Three Stars
This was a really interesting one due to the historical details of this plot. Having some German heritage myself like Maria, I really didn’t know about the beginning of World War I and Germany’s influence on it all. Sad because of the deaths, but important to learn about. I’d say that the first half of this book was more focused on the woman’s right to vote movement and the later half on the war and prejudice of German-Americans like Maria and her family.



{{Official Content Review to Come.}}

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good series for young girls/women to read. Each book has values to be learned for readers. The plot of this story was about a young girl named Maria who believes she can be or do anything a boy can do, and is encouraged along the way to participate in the Woman’s Suffrage Movement.

[Cws]

JAR5-Sis