The Musical Debut
of Amy Cheney Beach
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Calkins Creek
(Astra Books for Young Readers
(pub.3.21.2023) pages
Author: Caitlin DeLems
Illustrator: Alison Jay
Character: Amy Cheney Beach
Overview:
" With perfect pitch and fierce persistence, Amy Beach always knew she had to make music. There was just one BIG problem. Her mother believed it was not proper or suitable for a young lady to draw attention to herself, let alone take on a musical career. But give in or give up? Not Amy Beach. She demanded to play the piano. Demanded to have a real teacher. Demanded to perform. Luckily—for the world!—Amy’s persistence paid off. At just sixteen years old, Amy Beach found herself on the stage of Boston’s Music Hall—and the start of a brilliant career. A female composer who paved the way—perfectly!"
Tantalizing taste:
" But no one could stop Amy from HEARING music.
No one could stop her from THINKING music.
No one could stop her from PLAYING music - her way.
While her fingers struck her imaginary keyboard, Amy burst into songs - including her own melodies to Mother Goose rhymes.
She stored every note, every measure, to memory."
And something more: Caitlin DeLems in the Author's Note explains that "Twice, she visited and played for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House.... Amy Beach published over three hundred works. At a time when women were establishing roles in many professions, she helped bring female musicians out of the piano parlor, onto the stage, and into the music publishing world."
Queen of Southern Cooking,
Edna Lewis
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Cameron Kids
(Abrams Books for Young Readerr)
(pub.4.18.2023) 32 pages
Author: Melvina Noel
Illustrator: Cozbi A. Cabrera
Character: Edna Lewis
Overview:
" Edna loved to cook. Growing up on a farm in Freetown, Virginia, she learned the value of fresh, local, seasonal food from her Mama Daisy, how to measure ingredients for biscuits using coins, and to listen closely to her cakes to know when they were done.
Edna carried these traditions with her all the way to New York, where she became a celebrated chef, who could even turn traditional French food into her signature Southern style. The author of several cookbooks and the recipient of numerous awards, Chef Edna introduced the world to the flavors of her home."
Tantalizing taste:
" Frying, roasting, stewing, baking. Roast chicken, filet mignon, fish, zucchini squash, green salad. Chocolate soufflé, caramel cake.
The restaurant was a smash. Edna peeped out from the kitchen to watch actors and editors, poets and playwrights, even a a First Lady enjoy her food. It reminded her of family dinners in Freetown. One diner would beg her to make her biscuits. Another asked her if she'd studied her craft in Paris. What was her secret?
Edna just smiled. Her Paris was Freetown, the flavors of home passed down from one generation to the next."
And something more: Melvina Noel in the Author's Note explains that "The Edna Lewis Foundation was created in January of 2012, six years after Edna passed away. Their mission statement is to 'revive, preserve, and celebrate the rich history of African American cookery by cultivating a deeper understanding of Southern food and culture in America.'"
The true story of Jadav Payeng
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
NorthSouth Books
(pub.4.18.2023) 40 pages
Author: Rina Singh
Illustrator: Ishita Jain
Character: Jadav Payeng
Overview:
" What can one person do in the face of global environmental degradation? Indian Jadav Payeng has proven that each and every one of us can make a difference. As a boy, he began planting trees on a sandbank in the state of Assam.
Nobody believed that he would succeed in doing so. But since 1979, a forest the size of Central Park has emerged, offering a home to countless animals and plants. It was not until 2007 that a photographer accidentally discovered the forest and made Payeng known to the world beyond India."
Tantalizing taste:
"Every day he took the bamboo seedlings, a stick, and a bucket and rode his bike to the river.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
All day long he dug holes in the sandy soul soil and planted the seedlings. His hands bruised and his shoulders ached, but he dug, and he planted. He made hundreds of trips to the river to bring water to tend the growing seedlings. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was an impossible task. But he was not one to give up."
And something more: The last page of the book explains that "Jadav Molai Payeng, a tribesman from Majuli, has since 1979 planted a forest on an abandoned sandbar where nothing had grown before... He labored in isolation and complete anonymity, and his forest grew so gradually that it went unnoticed for thirty years... The forest has become a migration corridor for a herd of more than a hundred elephants."
