The Story of Indigenous Marathon Champion
Lorena Ramirez
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
(Simon Kids)
(pub. 6.11.2024)
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Belen Medina
Illustrator: Natalia Rojas Castro
Character: Lorena Ramirez
Overview:
" Experience a sixty-mile run with Indigenous athlete Lorena Ramírez [from Mexico]. She runs in the traditional clothes of the Rarámuri, 'the light-footed people,' to show that her people and their way of life are alive and thriving—outpacing runners in modern, high-tech gear and capturing the world’s attention. Lorena’s career as an athlete is an inspiring real-life example of the power of perseverance that will encourage young readers to follow their own dreams."
Tantalizing taste:
"Quiet as a deer.
Quick as a rabbit.
Graceful as a gazelle.
She thinks of the finish line,
of her family,
and of her community,
not of giving up.
Fifty miles she runs."
And something more: In the About Lorena section at the back of the book, the author, Belen Medina writes: "Life is not easy for the Rarámuri, Lorena and her family must walk or run for hours through the canyon to buy food and supplies. This is one way she built her endurance. She also built up her stamina by herding the family's goats and cows, as well as play a Rarámuri running game where players kick a ball across miles...
Many of the Rarámuri, including Lorena, help their families make a living by winning races ...
Lorena's persistence is what I find most inspiring about her. Whether she wins or loses a race, she stays determined and never compromises who she is."
Updated: Aug 9
The Life of Augusta Baker,
Librarian and Master Storyteller
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Dial Books for Young Readers
(Penguin Random House)
(pub. 2.6.2024)
40 pages
Ages 5-8
Author: Breanna J. McDaniel
Illustrator: April Harrison
Character: Augusta Baker
Overview:
"Before Augusta Braxton Baker became a storyteller, she was an excellent story listener. Her grandmother brought stories like Br’er Rabbit and Arthur and Excalibur to life, teaching young Augusta that when there’s a will, there’s always a way.
When she grew up, Mrs. Baker began telling her own fantastical stories to children at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. But she noticed that there were hardly any books at the library featuring Black people in respectful, uplifting ways. Thus began her journey of championing books, writers, librarians, and teachers centering Black stories, educating and inspiring future acclaimed authors like Audre Lorde and James Baldwin along the way.
As Mrs. Baker herself put it: 'Children of all ages want to hear stories. Select well, prepare well and then go forth and just tell.'"
Tantalizing taste:
"She decided to use her voice - not just to share the stories she already knew, but to search out new ones, and even create some of her own.
Augusta remembered how the heroes in her grandmother's stories sometimes started out at the bottom but would rise up!
She wanted Black children to have heroes that rose up and looked, talked and shined bright ... just like them."
And something more: In the Author's Note, Breanna J. McDaniel shares a photo of herself with her childhood librarian, Ms. Michelle Carnes (to whom she dedicates the book) and explains: "Standing cheek-to-cheek with a woman who had known me when I was a young, passionate-about-everything girl and had, with her guidance and grace, helped me grow into the scholar and writer I am today, I fully understood why Audre Lourde adored Augusta Baker so much. Ms. Baker had taught her to read. She had saved her life, just as my own librarian had saved mine."
How Abraham Cahan's Newspaper
Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Holiday House
(pub. 2.20.2024)
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Norman H. Finkelstein
Illustrator: Vesper Stamper
Character: Abraham Cahan
Overview:
" Abraham Cahan was the founder and longtime editor of the Yiddish language newspaper, the Forverts (the Forward), which, in its heyday, was one of the largest newspapers in the United States. As the saying went: 'What's a home without the Forverts?'
From explaining voting rights to the importance of public health measures to everyday questions like how to play baseball, Cahan improved the lives of countless newly arrived Jewish immigrants who wanted to feel at home in a new, strange land. He also published celebrated writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer and created the iconic advice column the Bintel Brief (Bundle of Letters) for homesick readers."
Tantalizing taste:
"With the newspaper's success Abe built a ten-story building with a blazing electric Forverts sign in Yiddish on top. That sign and the newspaper he created were beacons of hope to those early Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Decades later, although their children and grandchildren may not speak Yiddish, we remember that it was Abe and his Forverts that helped families keep their old traditions while making new lives for themselves in the United States."
And something more: Norman H. Finkelstein explains in the Author's Note: "My relationship with the Forverts began at a very young age. My grandparents and parents arrived from Europe with Yiddish as their first language. In America, the Forverts was their link to the world. My job was to often pick up the newspaper for them at a local deli. My own Yiddish abilities were minimal, but I was specifically attracted to the Sunday issues, which contained a separate section with sepia news photographs from around the world with English subtitles... Like many others, I forgot about the Forverts until they began publishing an English edition... made relevant to a new generation of readers who did not know Yiddish."
