Patsy Takemoto Mink
and the Fight for Title IX
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Quill Tree Books
(Haper Collins Publishers)
(pub.1.25.22) 48 pages
Author: Jen Bryant
Illustrator: Toshiki Nakamura
Character: Patsy Takemoto Mink
Overview:
"From a young age, Patsy Takemoto Mink learned that striving for goals came with challenges. But she also learned to never give up. As the Japanese proverb says: fall down seven times, stand up eight.
That spirit helped Patsy through school. She wanted to become a doctor, but at the time, medical schools didn’t admit women. So Patsy carved her own path. She went to law school, ran for a seat in the United States Congress, and helped create Title IX, the law that requires federally funded schools to treat boys and girls equally. Although many people tried to knock her down, Patsy—a historic trailblazer who spent her life fighting for fairness—always got up again!"
Tantalizing taste:
" At home, Patsy learned about traditions like the Daruma doll:
how to paint in one eye, work hard for a goal,
and then paint in the other eye to show you reached it.
When she touched the doll, it rolled over ... but then it sprang right back!
Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
It was an old Japanese saying that means never give up."
And something more: Jen Bryant, in the Author's Note, explains that "when four-year-old Patsy Takemoto followed her older brother into his classroom on the first day of school, everyone laughed. She'll get tired of it and quit, the adults predicted. But Patsy proved she belonged there. Years later, when she ran for the Hawaiian legislature, no one in her male-dominated Democratic Party thought she could win. But Patsy convinced people she could do a better job than the men - and she won.
And when, as a US Congresswoman, she co-sponsored a bill that required schools receiving government funds to treat men and women equally, few believed it would pass. But it did."