Imogene's Last Stand Book

Meet Imogene, a plucky heroine with a passion for history.

As a baby, Imogene's first words were “Four score and seven years ago.” In preschool, she fingerpainted a map of the Oregon Trail. So it’s not surprising that when the mayor wants to tear down the long-neglected Liddleton Historical Society to make room for a shoelace factory, Imogene is desperate to convince the town how important its history is. But even though she rides through the streets in her Paul Revere costume shouting, “The bulldozers are coming, the bulldozers are coming!” the townspeople won’t budge. What’s a history-loving kid to do?

Filled with quotes from history’s biggest players—not to mention mini-bios on the endpapers—and lots of humor, here’s the perfect book for budding historians.

From the Hardcover edition.

Children's Literature

Young Imogene Tripp lives in the small town of Liddleville, New Hampshire. From babyhood she has been fascinated by history. She is distressed by the condition of the neglected Liddleville Historical Society building. After cleaning it up and organizing it, Imogene waits for visitors in vain. One day a notice is posted stating that the building will be torn down for construction of a shoelace factory. Appalled, Imogene protests to the mayor, but he is firm. "Who cares about history?" he asks. In one of her many quotes from history, Imogene declares, "I have not yet begun to fight!" She keeps trying to make the town care, but everyone is on the side of the shoelaces. In her last goodbye to the Society, however, Imogene finds a letter from George Washington, proving that he had slept there. Spreading the word, she stops the bulldozers until the president arrives to declare the house a national landmark. She has saved it. This feisty female is supported by a woman president as well. Carpenter's sketchy, pen-and-ink drawings with digital media are informative as well as light-hearted. She fills the long double-page spreads with attractive scenes of the town and the collections in the museum. Imogene is a delightful young heroine; the mayor is a proper, pudgy politician. The comparatively slight story is not only inspiring. It is also a way of introducing history through the quotations used by Imogene that are placed in historic context on the end pages. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz