Reviewed by: Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender: The True Story of a Civil War Spy, and: Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero Elizabeth Bush Jones, Carrie. Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender: The True Story of a Civil War Spy; illus. by Mark Oldroyd. Carolrhoda, 2011. 32p. ISBN 978-0-7613-5399-7 $7.95 R 6–10 yrs. Moss, Marissa. Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero; illus. by John Hendrix. Abrams, 2011. 48p. ISBN 978-0-8109-9735-6 $18.95 R 6–10 yrs. It’s a generally accepted fact that many women passed as men on Civil War battle-fields, but the condition of secrecy, of course, rendered their stories untold. Much is known, though, about Sarah Edmonds, a young Canadian woman who enlisted in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry under the name of Frank Thompson. Serving first as a battlefield nurse, Sarah/Frank was recruited for espionage missions behind Confederate lines. Her spying days came to an end with a bout of malaria; unwilling to risk revealing her identity in a military hospital, she sought civilian medical attention instead. By the time “Sarah” had recovered, “Frank” was listed as a deserter, forcing Edmonds to retire from soldiering. Jones and Moss have sometimes conflicting, sometimes complementary takes on Edmonds’ story. Moss has her initially fleeing from an arranged marriage, and Jones from an abusive father. Moss emphasizes her nursing role and one mission as a spy; Jones discusses several of her disguises on various spy missions. Each title has a distinctive look: the jazzed-up folksiness of Hendrix’s pictures in Nurseand Oldroyd’s hazily atmospheric illustrations in Sarah. In a battle of the books, Nursehas a slight edge with snappier storytelling, a substantial historical note, remarks on the artist’s research, a glossary of Civil War terms, bibliographies, and an index, and even a pair of photographs of Edmonds and “Thompson.” There’s a pragmatic simplicity to Jones’ text, though, and she weighs in additionally with the “Thompson” photo, a brief note, and a briefer bibliography. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois