A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Little Brown Books
for Young Readers
(pub.2.21.2021) 48 pages
Author: Julie Leung
Illustrator: Julie Kwon
Character: Hazel Ying Lee
Overview: "Hazel Ying Lee was born fearless—she was not afraid of anything, and the moment she took her first airplane ride, she knew where she belonged. When people scoffed at her dreams of becoming a pilot, Hazel wouldn't take no for an answer. She joined the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPSs) during World War II. It was a dangerous job, but Hazel flew with joy and boldness.
This moving, true story about a groundbreaking figure will inspire young readers to challenge barriers and reach for the sky." Tantalizing taste:
"Once Hazel had a taste of sky, she couldn't let it go.
To pay for flying lessons, Hazel worked as an elevator operator at a department store.
It was one of the few jobs Chinese girls were allowed to have.
'Invisible jobs,' Hazel called them. Jobs where you were ignored.
Every day in an airless box, she shuttled shoppers from one floor to the next.
When she pulled the lever for different floors, she smiled, imagining she was moving a plane's throttle instead."
And something more: Julie Leung writes in the Author's Note: "Hazel was one of 132 women capable of 'flying pursuit,' meaning she was qualified to pilot superfast and powerful fighter planes such as P63 Kingcobras. On Thanksgiving day in 1944... a miscommunication from the radio tower caused Hazel and another pilot to try to land at the same time. The planes collided, and Hazel died from her injuries two days later, at the age of 32... In 1977, President Jimmy Carter finally gave the WASPs veteran status. And in 2009, President Barack Obama awarded all WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service."
Today, Memorial Day, we honor and mourn Hazel Ying Lee and all other military personnel who died in the performance of their duties. I also chose this book to honor Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month -- as Julie Leung says, "I marveled at Hazel's bravery and passion to pursue the skies, regardless of the gender and racial barriers she faced."
I want to share the exciting news that the amazing illustrator of our picture book biography, MAYA LIN - ARTIST ARCHITECT OF LIGHT AND LINES, DOW PHUMURIK was chosen to part of an exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum. The exhibit showcases 26 artists and shares positive Asian American stories and images in contemporary picture books. Hop over and visit the virtual show curated by the children's book author and illustrator, Grace Lin, to see all of the wonderful books!
Updated: May 24, 2021
Williamina Stevens Fleming: Astronomer
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Harper
(Harper Collins Publishers)
(pub. 1.19.2021) 40 pages
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Illustrator: Julianna Swaney
Character: Williamina Stevens Fleming
Overview: "Ever since Williamina Fleming was little, she was curious, and her childhood fascination with light inspired her life’s work. Mina became an astronomer in a time when women were discouraged from even looking through telescopes. Yet Mina believed that the universe, with its billions of stars, was a riddle—and she wanted to help solve it.
Mina ultimately helped to create a map of the universe that paved the way for astronomers. Newbery Honor–winning Kathryn Lasky shares her incredible true story."
Tantalizing taste:
"But the most unfair thing was that Williamina and, later, other women astronomers were never allowed to look through a telescope for 'health reasons.' Women, the men said, were too fragile. In the unheated observatory dome, they might catch cold!
So what the women saw were the glass plates that recorded the spectra. The plates were removed from the telescope's spectrograph and like film were put in a chemical bath to develop. Gradually the lines would appear. It would remind Mina of the magic that transpired in her father's darkroom back in Dundee, Scotland."
And something more: Kathryn Lasky writes in the Author's Note: "When I discovered that in the late nineteenth century there was a team of women at the [Harvard College] observatory known as the 'human computers,' I was intrigued. Harvard had never been welcoming to women... These women ultimately laid the groundwork for twentieth-century astronomy... I just knew I had to tell their story, but I decided to focus on Williamina. To travel across the ocean from Scotland, then to be abandoned by her husband and raise a child on her own in a foreign country - what a poignant story!"
