- Jun 10, 2023
Shirley Chisholm's Fight for Change
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Millbrook Press
(Lerner Books)
(pub.11.1.2022) 32 pages
Author: Tameka Fryer Brown
Illustrator: Nina Crews
Character: Shirley Chisholm
Overview:
" Brooklyn-born Shirley Chisholm was smart and ambitious. She poured her energy into whatever she did―from teaching young children to becoming Brooklyn’s first Black assemblywoman. Not afraid to blaze a trail, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to seriously run for US president. With a vision of liberty and justice for all, she worked for equal rights, for the environment, for children, and for health care. Even now, her legacy lives on and inspires others to continue her work . . . which is not done yet."
Tantalizing taste:
" A little schoolteacher can't lead us, they said.
What we need is a big, strong man.
This made women furious!
Show them with your vote,
Shirley said.
They did ... and she won!
The first Black woman ever elected to Congress!
She made history!
But she wasn't done yet."
And something more: In A Note About Quotations, Tameka Fryer Brown explains "Shirley Chisholm was a powerful, eloquent speaker. In writing her story as a narrative free verse poem, I made the decision to paraphrase her statements, and those of others, to maintain poetic form and ensure the text would be accessible to young readers. Statements in the main text are all based on things Chisholm said or recounted ...[The following] statements on the endsheets and back cover are exact quotes of hers..."
"Don't listen to those who say you can't. Listen to the voice inside yourself that says, 'I CAN.'"
-Shirley Chisholm
- May 31, 2023
Jane Taylor's Beloved Poem
of Wonder and the Stars
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Bloomsbury Children's Books
(pub. 2.15.2022) 40 pages
Author: Elizabeth Brown
Illustrator: Becca Stadtlander
Character: Jane Taylor
Overview:
"In the days when most girls were brought up to run a home, Jane Taylor had a different kind of education in the English countryside, where she was inspired by nature and the stars, and dreamed of becoming a writer. But in the late 1700s, it was not considered proper for women to be writers. Jane and other female poets were shunned, unable to use their own names when published. But Jane did write, and she never forgot her love for the beauty of nature and the glow of stars, or her desire to write for children. Her published poetry became universally known for generations to come: Twinkle, twinkle little star."
Tantalizing taste:
" Jane and [her sister] Ann hoped that people reading their poems would feel what they experienced: running in the meadows, gazing at stars, a childhood of poetry.
Children loved how Jane's words sparkled, her verses shined, her poems were bright as stars."
And something more: The section titled, Jane Taylor 1783-1824, explains: "Jane hoped to inspire young children's imaginations through her poetry. Her works were among the first of their kind written for children's enjoyment rather than for purely educational purposes... there is no doubt that women writers of the Romantic era struggled in the shadow of male writers. But the perseverance of women like Jane blazed the path to the acceptance of women as writers in the nineteenth century and beyond."
- May 30, 2023
Marie Curie, Bronia Dluska,
and the Atomic Power of Sisterhood
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Knopf Books for Young Readers
(pub. 2.14.2023) 40 pages
Author: Linda Elovitz Marshall
Illustrator: Anna and Elena Balbusso
Characters: Marie Curie and Bronia Dluska
Overview:
" Marie Curie has long been a well-known name around the world. Though Marie made extraordinary scientific advances discovering new elements with her husband, Pierre, many students do not know about the powerful bond that propelled her into science: her sisterhood with Bronia! A force in academia and health care herself, Bronia made significant contributions to the scientific world, along with her loving support of sister Marie.
Sisters in Science is a compelling biography of two sisters who created their own paths while keeping the atomic bonds of sisterhood strong."
Tantalizing taste:
" Finally, peace returned.
At last, the sisters were reunited.
In Paris, Marie established the Radium Institute - now called the Curie Institute - for research and medical training, and for treating people with cancer.
In Warsaw, her hometown, she set up a second Radium Institute - this one, with Bronia in charge. All their lives, Marie and Bronia helped each other.
And something more: On A Personal Note, Linda Elovitz Marshall explains: "In a way, it is because of Marie Curie that I began writing for children. I was in graduate school, working toward my PhD in anthropology, when an X-ray revealed a cancer. I left my PhD program and, after successful treatment, some of which was based on Marie Curie's long-ago research, returned to a deeper and earlier love - the education of young children- and then started writing for children.
Mine and countless other lives have been improved by Marie Curie. Dr. Curie's discoveries provided the basis for much of our understanding of radioactivity and radiation."
