The Hope Chest
Violet is eleven years old, but she has run away in order to find her older sister, Chloe. Chloe has been banished from Violet’s life after she took a nursing degree, and bought a car with the money set aside for her hope chest. It’s 1920, and Violet’s parents are resolved that she will not become one of those brazen, independent women like her sister, who has gone to work in New York. All Violet knows as she gets on a train is that her sister is in the City. The address from a long-ago letter isn’t much to go on, but she must try to find her. When she finds the settlement house where her sister works, however, she learns Chloe has gone to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution—the one that will give American women the right to vote.
Violet begins another journey, this time to Nashville. Dangers and narrow escapes are everywhere along the way. Fortunately, she finds a street-wise traveling companion, an orphaned “colored” girl named Myrtle. Their adventures, in both North and South, involve readers in the pains and shames of the segregated world, as well as what it was like to be part of the fight for voting rights. Packed with historical detail and chock full of plucky and engaging characters of both sexes, The Hope Chest is highly recommended.