"Maria Takes a Stand" by Norma Jean Lutz

About this book:

  “Maria Schmidt finds a cause to support.

When the Minneapolis twelve-year-old learns of the effort to give women the right to vote, she takes up the cause. It’s not easy, though—besides the friction the “suffragettes” face, Maria fears the threats her father, a union officer, is receiving. And with a new war going on in Europe, her German-sounding surname brings her added trouble.

Maria must overcome her personal hardships to serve a cause much larger than herself. Can she reply on God’s strength to do the right thing?”


Series: Book #18 in the “Sisters in Time” series. Click on the numbers to be taken to that review: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, & #17.


Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read, quoted, & discussed; Talks about God; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; A couple mentions of Scripture reading & prayers in a classroom; A couple mentions of being blessed & blessings; A mention of thanking God; A mention of someone in the Bible.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘shut up’, a ‘sissies’, and three forms of ‘dumb’; Maria and her siblings face prejudice for their German heritage & mentions of the hate-filled words; Maria gets shoved and flung around (barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of wars, fighting, killing/deaths, & assassinations (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an accident, fires, people being shot and killed, & deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a riot & intending to do violence; Mentions of arrests & jails; Mentions of people throwing rotten tomatoes at those matching for the right to vote for women; A few mentions of injuries & blood/bleeding; A few mentions of threats & vandalism; A few mentions of stolen items; A few mentions of rumors; A couple mentions of an awful political cartoon showing doll-like bodies of children bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of beer & drinking.

Sexual Content- N/A.

-Maria Schmidt, age 12-13
                                P.O.V. of Maria

                                            Set in 1914-1915
                                                    139 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

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.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.