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Two Friends


Two Friends
By Dean Robbins
Illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko
Orchard Books, 2016. Picture book.

Two friends, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, get together in Rochester, New York to share a cup of tea and talk about their fight for equal rights. It's the 1800's and "some people had rights, while others had none. Why shouldn't they have them too?" The two friends meet when they realize that they like each others' ideas and so they promise to help one another.

Two Friends is a very simple and engaging introduction to two important figures in history and their efforts for equal rights. There are good messages of cooperation and doing what you think is right - both of which are conveyed without seeming overbearing. The folk-art inspired illustrations and cutouts of strips with ink writing (many of which are quotes from either Douglass or Anthony) add to the style and setting of the book.

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