Reviews for Sophia's Gift
Midwest Book Review
Sophia’s Gift is archived for 5 years (2022 to 2027)
at www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/nov_22htm#Picturebook
https://www.amazon.com/Sophias-Gift-Karen-B-Kurtz/dp/1945190973
Gale Cengage Learning Interactive Series for academic, corporate, and public library systems
Synopsis: Sophia and her mother, Caroline Strauss, bind up the soldier’s wounds and nurse him back to health. When he is well enough to travel, the soldier gives Sophia a china doll she names Grace Darling, after the real British Victorian icon, Grace Horsley Darling. The doll becomes Sophia’s beloved plaything, and still lives on at American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Few books provide a glimpse into the daily life of women and children during the American Civil War. Fewer still talk about Jewish Confederates.
Critique: Featuring vivid watercolor spreads, Sophia’s Gift is a picture book for children and Junior Collectors ages 8 to 17, as well as adult enthusiasts of doll collecting, women’s studies, history, military, and antiques. Color photos in Historical Note recall Victorian times. Sophia’s Gift is especially and unreservedly recommended for family, middle school, and community library collections; Civil War History and Jewish History picture book collections for young readers.
Editorial Note 1: Award-winning author Karen B. Kurtz received a Coleman Award from The United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC) that empowered her original research into American Civil War dolls with provenance. Karen met the captivating china doll Grace Darling at The American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virgina, while traveling around America documenting these early artifacts. Grace Darling was manufactured in the 1850s by Alt, Beck and Gottschalck in Thuringia, Germany.
Editorial Note 2: Loran Chavez is an award-winning, self-taught artist with representation in several Gulf Coast galleries. Her art is found in collections all over the world.
− with permission from Midwest Book Review
“Sophia’s Gift is a heart-warming tale of a young girl who finds comfort during the horrors of the American Civil War as a beautiful china doll appears unexpectedly in the family’s shop in 1862 Culpeper, Virginia.
As battles rage nearby, a cease fire is called to remove the wounded from the battlefield. Aid is enlisted from the townspeople. Sophia’s mother tells her to carry all fragile shop items to her bedroom. One fragile item has a deep place in her heart: the china doll she inwardly calls Grace Darling.
Soon, a wounded Confederate soldier is carried into Sophia’s bedroom. Grace Darling sits there in Sophia’s room, a silent witness to the days that follow, as Sophia keeps the soldier company. He realizes how important this doll is to Sophia, so when he’s ready to leave, he gives Sophia the doll Grace Darling as her very own in appreciation for Sophia’s many kindnesses.
Sophia’s Gift will pique a young reader’s interest in learning more about civilian lives during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and encourage them to see the importance of dolls as constant companions through the best and worst of times. It shows, even in times of great struggle, kindness to others is a most welcome gift.”
−with permission from Antique DOLL Collector
www.antiquedollcollector.com
“This children’s book is based on the true story of a little girl’s friendship with an injured soldier recuperating in her family’s house during the Civil War. Set in Culpeper, Virginia, in 1862, Sophia’s Gift tells how Sophia and her mother struggle to survive as the Civil War rages around them. Sophia Strauss’s father is captured by soldiers and taken away, leaving her mother and Sophia to cope with keeping their shop open.
Sophia is captivated by a doll for sale in the shop. Though not hers, Sophia names the doll Grace Darling after the iconic real-life Grace Horsley Darling, who saved nine people shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of England in 1838.
Before returning to the battlefield, the soldier buys Grace Darling for Sophia as a gift of thanks for her friendship and care. Sophia’s Gift ends with Sophia and her mother sewing Grace Darling a new dress cut from an old gown from their attic.
Provenance: In 1938 the adult Sophia Strauss Morris donated Grace Darling to the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, and to this very day Grace Darling wears her homemade gown.
Written by antique doll researcher and author Karen B. Kurtz and illustrated by Loran Chavez, Sophia’s Gift is a gift of friendship that reminds us of the inevitable destruction and possible compassion that can occur during a state of war.”
− with permission from Maine Antique Digest, Amanda Russell
www.maineantiquedigest.com
“I remember reading a draft of Sophia’s Gift and offering what confirmation I could as to the accuracy of the Yiddish terms you chose to use in your wonderful story. . . I look forward to reading it to my granddaughter. . . The story is so simple and straightforwardly told that I expect she will be able to read it to me in short order!”
− Cheryl Glicker, Michigan reader
“Sophia’s Gift gives us a glimpse of a difficult time in America and how people endured their situation. We are reminded of the true friendships we have with our toys and how they can help us through difficult situations. Sophia’s Gift brings the china doll Grace Darling, who resides at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, to life for visitors that see her and compels the reader to want to visit her if they have not already done so.”
− DOLL NEWS, Editor Linda Holderbaum
www.ufdc.org/doll-news/magazine
