The Image Seeker (Bold Women of the 20th Century #3) by Amanda Hughes

The Image Seeker (Bold Women of the 20th Century #3) Reviews

• 
  Rebekah Morris

  DNF
  This sounded like an interesting book, however, I didn’t get very far before there were hints about a male teacher “doing things” to his older girl students at a Catholic boarding school and no one believed the girls. Then the main character, Billie, prays to be able to get away before the teacher does “things” to her and goes to the chapel to pray and starts hearing a lady’s voice telling her what to do. I stopped reading when the school was burning down and all girls Billie's age who were locked into their room at night, died in the fire except Billie, and the “lady” in her head was telling her to run away. Perhaps it got better, but I didn’t want to keep reading to find out.
• 
  Becky

  Amanda Hughes has written a story of an Indian child living on a reservation in Minnesota who follows her dream of photography to become a successful photojournalist with the New York Times! She wrote a book about the hard times during the depression, including the danger and excitement of riding the rails, romance, espionage, returning to her roots to perfect the use of Code Talking using her childhood language, covering the 1936 Olympics and escaping Nazi Germany. This was such a good read.
• 
  Nancy Wilkinson

  While I found the beginning of this book to be a bit stiff, I think because in places there was just a lot of narration and not as much dialogue, the rest of the book more than made up for that. While I have read a lot of WWII novels, I had never encountered the Berlin Olympics before and this added a great exclamation to the story. But the crux of the story was riding the rails and this was fabulous. I have never read a book about hobos, and this was fascinating. The native American connection was also insightful and so the was so much to digest in this book, I never wanted it to end! Bravo, Ms Hughes!
• 
  Dorothy Wiley

  In a nutshell, this was one of the best books I've ever read. It is a slice of life, and a thick slice at that, that opened my eyes to a fascinating period of American and international history. After a long and difficult journey, the main character becomes one of America's first female photojournalists. Successfully competing in a man's world, and highly creative, she is finally recognized as being among the finest news photographers in the nation. The setting is one of our country’s most tragic eras--the Great Depression--and later moves to Europe where our heroine finds herself fighting the hatred of Nazi Germany while trying to let herself truly love for the first time in her life. This novel was both heart-breaking and heart-warming. Both tragically poignant and wonderfully inspiring. A great novel about a bold and brave woman by a bold and courageous author.
• 
  Amanda Lauer

  This book had me captivated from page 1. It was such an interesting story, and even though it's fiction, the things that Billie went through as an American Indian child living through the Depression and as a young adult being part of the war effort during WWII, were things real people did experience during those time periods. It wasn't an easy life and there were many harrowing experiences but in the end Billie created the life of which she always dreamed. As an author, I love reading about strong female characters, and Billie is the definition of feminine strength and grace.
• 
  Linda

  I really enjoyed this book. I know it says it is book 3, however, I have never read any of the other ones and found it stood alone without any problem. The book follows a Native American girl throughout her life in the 1920's and beyond. She grows up in a residential school and later goes on to lead a very exciting, albeit harrowing life through WW2.
  
  Without giving away any spoilers, let me just say it brought to light aspects of life that I had never thought about and talked about the Native American contributions in both world wars that I knew little about.
• 
  Rebecca Farrar

  Fascinating Read
  
  Could not stop reading. Stayed up all night 🌙 to finish book. Whether you are woman or man, you will learn about the great depression and what people were doing to survive American Indian life for children school age and as adults, overcoming obstacles to rise above them to become successful as a photographer/journalist sent to Nazi Germany during the Olympics and surviving the Socialist government there and in America. If you want to talk a walk down history's road, please pick this book .
  
• 
  Susan

  Really enjoyed this book about a real person who grew up in the early 20th century. The main character was a young Native American who was forced into going to boarding school by the government. It was US policy to take native children and “Americanize” them virtually wiping out the language and the families. This young girl escapes the school when a fire burns the school down and she makes a new family by riding the rails. She joins a circus and then later becomes a well known photographer. Her name was a Billie Bassett.
• 
  June

  Yowza this is one wide spanning book. It takes a slice of Americana which rarely spoken or
  written about namely rail riding and spins it into detailed enriching experience for the reader.
  Then jump into some time spent with a carny and even then one moves on to New York for
  another experience! Terrific background, interesting characters and plots galore...what more could
  a reader ask for!!!
• 
  Kathy Schouten

  I loved everything about this book and actually learned things about some subjects. I liked the American Indian aspect of Billie’s life- her mandatory time at the boarding school. And then her time riding the rails and the life of the hobos. Her subsequent jobs with the carnival and as a photographer for the police dept. Her career with the newspaper and her time as a photographer and code talker during the 1936 Olympics were especially interesting.
• 
  Oletta

  What a disappointment. The historical elements, setting, and plot twists COULD HAVE been inspirational. Unfortunately, the sophomoric sentence structure, rushed transitions, grammatical errors ("guten morgan" - seriously?!), immature romance scenes (I literally rolled my eyes) and corny ending ruined grand possibilities.
• 
  Robert Ruesch

  What I loved about this book was the author's willingness to clarify the background of the characters on revealing their past. You learned about the individuals and felt you were part of their adventure, their story.
  The plot, storyline, is well thought out and excellent. Amanda Hughes digs deep into history to reveal a challenging time in the history of the word and the circumstances for the characters.
  This book kept me reading well into the night!
• 
  Tess Ailshire

  Billie is an inspiration, facing racism and sexism with intelligence, wisdom, and a great deal of independent spirit.
  
  While the story dumps a lot of activity into a little bit of time, one does not doubt Billie could accomplish the acts. For one person to have the infallible judgment she has of who to trust and who not to is also a bit stretched, but somehow the only sentiment I found myself with was "Wow. She accomplished so much, so young."