The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Negley, Keith

Mary Wears What She Wants

48 pp. | HarperCollins/B+B | January, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-284679-2 $17.99

(2) K-3 When Mary gets the daring idea to wear pants, she's met with angry adults for wearing "boy's clothes," but inside school she finds a classroom of girls also wearing pants--and happy smiles. Illustrations place the aspirational story based on Civil War surgeon and feminist Mary Walker's (1832–1919) life in a vaguely mid-nineteenth-century American setting; playful content, a riot of fabric patterns, and cheerful candy colors lend a modern sensibility.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019