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