Things a Bright Girl Can Do

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Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2019, National Book Award, Books Are My Bag Readers’ Awards and the YA Book Prize

Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote. Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university.

Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women’s freedom. May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence.

When she meets Nell, a girl who’s grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit.

Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place. But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe.

As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?

What we think of this book & ideas for gifting

You'll be transported back to the 1910s, to the lives of three teenage girls fighting for their place in society. Inspiring, captivating and romantic, this is the perfect story for young people learning about equality.