This is the front cover of "Two Friends," a book for early readers about the friendship of famous activists Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

This is the front cover of “Two Friends,” a book for early readers about the friendship of famous activists Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

“Two Friends – Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass” by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko

Orchard Books/Scholastic, $17.99

Review by David Steinberg

This picture book for young readers is a terrific jumping off point for anyone of any age to learn about two iconic 19th century Americans famous for their unceasing activism – Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

Anthony is known today chiefly for championing the right to vote for women. But Anthony was an activist on many fronts. She fought for women to have equal pay for equal work, for the right of all people, regardless of race or gender, to have equal educational opportunities and to be admitted into all professions.

And she pushed for the abolition of slavery.

An escaped slave, Douglass is largely known as an abolitionist. But he also supported women’s suffrage in his brilliant oratory and writings.

The setting of this book is Anthony’s home in Rochester, N.Y., and it is based on a statue in that city that shows Anthony and Douglass having tea.

The book’s author is award-winning writer Dean Robbins who reads his cultural commentaries on Wisconsin Public Radio. It’s Robbins’ first picture book.

The husband-and-wife illustrators are Sean Qualls and Selina Alko of Brooklyn, N.Y. Their illustrations, according to Publishers Weekly, use “paint, colored pencil and collage to create symbolic illustrations with a folk-art feel…”