Mercy Otis Warren never wanted just to cook and sew and keep house. She also wanted to go to school—to discover worlds far beyond her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Studying with the local minister, Mercy devoured books about ancient lands, foreign kings, and politics.

Politics was in her family—in her blood.

Unlike most girls of the mid-1700s, Mercy had attitude and spoke her mind. And she wrote—but mostly in secret. Only family and friends knew her as a published author.

Mercy wrote for years and years, and when her secret was revealed she became known as a Patriot with a pen.

Author Gretchen Woelfle and artist Alexandra Wallner relied on Mercy's letters and papers and worked closely with Warren experts for this first picture-book biography devoted to the remarkable Revolutionary War writer.

From the dust jacket