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Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross

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One of the most popular series ever published for young Americans, these classics have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, fictionalized biographies—easily read by children ages eight and up—today's youngster is swept right into history.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

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Augusta Stevenson

76 books8 followers

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5 stars
133 (37%)
4 stars
125 (35%)
3 stars
74 (21%)
2 stars
17 (4%)
1 star
3 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Profile Image for Eden Williams.
94 reviews18 followers
January 18, 2021
Most books about Clara Barton are all about her adult life. You know, how she nursed the soldiers in the Civil War. But this book is unique! It is all about Clara's childhood, from age seven to when she became a school teacher- with a short chapter about her adult life at the end.

A lot of history books seem like an eternity of boring facts. But not this book! This does NOT read as a history book. It reads like a story with fictional characters that you learn more and more about as the story goes. I loved getting to know Clara. She's shy and bashful sometimes, but when she's thinking about other's needs she isn't. She's awesome!

This book is for ages 8-12, but I think that anyone could read and enjoy it. Four stars!
Profile Image for Kim.
170 reviews
March 9, 2023
The best in this series so far. I don't know how much is accurate and how much is fictionalized, but I did make me want to delve deeper into her life.
8 reviews
January 29, 2019
I really enjoyed reading the story of Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson. The writing was simple and easy to understand, yet it was still interesting. The author made it easy to connect with the characters by the way she explained everything. I think that connecting with the characters is one of the best parts of reading any story. I think Clara was especially easy to connect with, and she would have to be my favorite character. She was very kind, smart, and strong. Everyone around her noticed this, too. However, throughout her younger years especially, she was extremely shy. The story didn’t really show this until she was on her own at school. Later, we find out that she is timid when she has to think about herself, but she is strong and dedicated when it comes to others. I am sometimes this way too; I forget myself when I help other people. This is also a major theme that can be taken from this story. She had the determination to help those around her, and she was good at it. It’s these traits that drove her to become an amazing person who did amazing things. My favorite quote was said by an unnamed nurse in the story. She said, “Her relatives say she forgets herself when she begins to talk about the needs of soldiers. She becomes another person, with the courage to face any audience anywhere. Just wait. You’ll see what I mean. You’ll love her.” I think that this sums up the story very well. Overall, I enjoyed learning about Clara Barton and her accomplishments, as well as what helped her do so many great things.
Profile Image for Prabhat  sharma.
1,512 reviews12 followers
July 6, 2022
Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson, Illustrator-Frank Giacoia- Illustrated Colour Picture Book- The book narrates the growing-up years of Clara Barton (1821-1912) was in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Her father was Captain Stephen Barton who inspired his daughter with a broad humanitarian interest. Barton was sent to school where she excelled in reading and spelling. When Barton was ten years old, she assigned herself the task of nursing her brother David back to health after he fell from the roof of a barn and received a severe head injury. She learned how to distribute the prescribed medication to her brother, as well as how to place leeches on his body to bleed him (a standard treatment at the time). She continued to care for David long after doctors had given up. He made a full recovery. To assist Barton with overcoming her shyness, her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher. This profession interested Barton greatly and helped motivate her. Barton became an educator in 1838 and served for 12 years in schools in Canada and West Georgia. Later, she was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very formalized and she did not attend nursing school, she provided self-taught nursing care. She founded the American Red Cross Society.
Profile Image for Shannon Clark.
565 reviews6 followers
April 1, 2013
I love these little biographies. I loved reading them when I was in elementary school and still do.

I never knew that Clara Barton was so shy around people that she wouldn't even speak to them. The only thing that helped her overcome it was if she was worried about other people-then she could speak. Imagine. And look at all she ending up accomplishing in her lifetime!

This was a great read about a very compassionate young girl who grew into a compassionate lady.
Profile Image for Suzanne.
266 reviews33 followers
August 31, 2022
I enjoyed reading biographies way back in the 4th grade. I still do enjoy them.

This is not the version that I read. I couldn't find it.
Profile Image for Jen.
671 reviews41 followers
July 4, 2022
On the one hand, it's always interesting for kids to read about the childhood of famous figures in history, and the last chapter gives some details on why Clara Barton is famous. On the other hand, the book is not especially well-written and there's definitely some racist perspectives in the storytelling, including white colonizer perspective stories about the "Indian Wars" from Clara's father, the use of the words "Negro" and "slave", and a white savior perspective on how (essentially) good white people were the ones responsible for rescuing/helping poor runaway enslaved people. My kid and I had a lot of conversations about these problematic framings, which was educational in a different way, but honestly I feel like there have to be better, more modern biographies out there.
Profile Image for Kara Kuehl.
Author 4 books5 followers
August 31, 2022
It's very cool to see how each aspect of her childhood affected her future and helped her become successful in her goal. The only reason this is not a 5 star review is because I didn't like the way the book randomly jumped ahead 1 or 2 or even 10+ years. I understand you can't write about everything but I think the transition could have been a bit smoother.
Profile Image for A.
8 reviews6 followers
July 14, 2017
I love Clara Barton's childhood. ❤️
35 reviews
June 22, 2021
Clara Barton is about a girl who was good at nursing other people including her own brother and friend.At home When Clara did school with her sisters she did not feel bashful but when she was at school Clara got to shy to answer anything.
32 reviews1 follower
April 6, 2013
Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson Illustrator Frank GiacoiaChildhood of Famous Americans Series)
ISBN-13: 9780020418207
Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson Illustrator Frank Giacoiais from a series of Childhood of Famous Americans. A Biography written for children ages 8-12 but can be enjoyed by anyone. The book tells about the life of Clara Barton who was a nurse who eventually founder the American Red Cross. This book goes into great detail of her life. I enjoyed reading about her because she is someone you learn about through nursing school and will always be remembered for the contributions to nursing and American Red Cross. Great find that talks about the life of some who contributed so much to nursing and the Red Cross. Anything about nursing I love to read.
23 reviews
December 12, 2016
Rating is so hard for me. What if a book is not a classic, or the top literary work of it's time, but it resonated with you? What if it was 5 stars in your life but not a 5 star book? I'm going to rate it 5 stars because I love Clara Barton, and this is the only book I have read about her. She was shy and cared for animals first, then she realized she cared for people. She lost her self conscious self when caring for animals and people. My life story. I didn't start the Red Cross, though.
36 reviews
March 23, 2013
I enjoyed this book. My son suggested I read it because he enjoyed it so much. I like how it starts out with Clara at age 7, my son's age. I think he could relate to Clara's love of adventure and how she had an encounter with mean classmates. It was an inspiring book for kids. I'm glad he enjoyed it and is anxious to read the other books in this series.
Profile Image for Mandy.
148 reviews
January 17, 2015
I read this for a book report in the third grade. I still remember the story. Truly an inspiring woman. This woman created a legacy out of her compassion. She created the American Red Cross which is still going strong today.
Profile Image for Maya.
19 reviews1 follower
May 4, 2009
I thought this was a very fun book to read. I thought it was very fun because they explained what happend in her life from when she was born to when she died.
Profile Image for Sharon.
268 reviews3 followers
February 18, 2011
Easy read - flows easily. This book tells the story of Clara Barton from childhood to adulthood. IT mixes between narrative and dialogue.
816 reviews1 follower
October 13, 2014
I liked it. She was super shy. She really liked to ride horses and she went enemy ranges so the enemy could even hit her, but she never was hit.
961 reviews
October 13, 2014
I liked it. She could read by the time she was 3. She did very good at grades because 3 of her siblings were teachers at home, but at school she was very shy and did bad, except for in writing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews

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