Savvy loves the weather, and loves Miss Liberty, who is both a local icon of the small town, somewhere on the East Coast, who girls have been portraying in the annual 4th of July parade since at least the 1950s. Everyone famous in the local town has been Miss Liberty, as has Levi, her older sister.

But there is talk that there will be no more Miss Liberty performing on Independence Day, that the city wants to do something else, and Savvy is crushed. She loves the idea of a strong female hero, and she wants to portray her one day.

Levi, who is Miss Liberty for the third year in a row, doesn’t like that she never gets to speak, and only perform. She is about to turn 18, and has learned that the local polling place has been moved 45 miles outside of town, and will be the same place that many other small towns have to use. So, she speaks out, saying that this is a hindrance to the local townfolk who want to vote, who might not have transportation. This is terrible. Miss Liberty should not have a cause.

I liked the general theme of the story, that one can be an icon, and use this to speak out for injustices, as Levi does. And it turns out many other women in the family, including their grandmother, have also put on protests and spoken out.

The only issue I had with this, and perhaps it is because I live in California where we can all vote by mail, is that I see this as a non-starter to protest. It is unclear when this story takes place, so perhaps it is before vote-by-mail became popular. Or perhaps it is a state that doesn’t allow it, even now. It is a minor quibble, but it pulled at me, and made me wonder where voters were being disenfranchised the way they were in this small town, with no other option to vote, that if that was the only option, that the townsfolk should have been more engaged.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is being published on the 6th of May 2025.

I received a free copy of, Miss Liberty, by Erin Moonyeen Haley, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Twelve year old Savvy wants to be Miss Liberty, in the fourth of July parade, unfortunately her sister has been Miss Liberty two many times already. Savvy is such a sweet and fierce character, even with her anxiety, I enjoyed this book.

Miss Liberty is about a 12 year old named Savvy, who wants to be her town's Miss Liberty, a title and role currently held by her older sister Levi. Savvy thinks her time has come, but then Savvy seems to do everything she can to step in the way. What will Savvy do?

Now obviously, I am not the target demo for this book. I do, however, have nieces in this age range who are always looking for recommendations. I feel like this is a good stepping stone into books geared towards older readers. It's set up similarly to YA or NA, but in a way appropriate to 8-12 year olds (3rd-7th grade according to the publisher). I think this would be a good read for kiddos in that age range as long as their reading level matches. I also liked the side them of learning how to deal with anxiety.

Thanks to Harper Collins Children's Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the small-town drama in this book, it does a great job in working for the genre. I thought everything worked well in the plot of the book and how the characters felt like they were supposed to be there. I enjoyed the way this was told and thought everything had that feel that I was looking for. Erin Moonyeen Haley wrote this well and had a charm to this story.