Women Who Dared
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Related TeachingBooks.net resources >>> Listen to Ann Angel introduce and read from Janis Joplin By Jennifer Prince, Curriculum Connections--School Library Journal When Women's History Month began in 1980 (it was Women's History Week then), there was a marked lack of women represented in children's biography collections. Sure, kids could find books on Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Clara Barton, and the wives of some of the U.S. Presidents, but little else. After 1980, however, children's collections expanded with an influx of titles about females from a variety of backgrounds and careers. Now, well into the 21st century, libraries have welcomed a succession of books about women whose life stories had previously been reserved for adult readers. In addition, some authors have found inspiration in the lives of individuals whose stories have never been published, but who have been every inch as integral to the fabric of American society. Enjoy these recent titles on women who dared to defy convention. Interspersed throughout the book are dozens of sidebars featuring quirky facts, quotes, and introductions to pioneers of one kind or another. An accessible format, and illustrations framed by large, colorful headings deliver the copious amount of information in an attractive layout. Dozens of photographs, drawings, political cartoons, and advertisements enliven the narrative. Students will find that this expansive resource broadens their understanding of textbook histories. In The Cowgirl Way: Hats off to America's Women of the West (Houghton Mifflin, 2010; Gr 3-6), Holly George-Warren vivifies these women and their environs with her lively writing and comprehensive research. She describes female homesteaders, outlaws, Wild West show stars, and rodeo champions, and explains how these lifestyles and individuals inspired film, singing, fashionista, and modern-day, real-life cowgirls. Fascinating anecdotes, documented first-person accounts, and compelling details about women's lives in the saddle make for a top-notch resource for report writing and entertaining leisure reading. Telling quotes appear in shaded sidebars throughout the volume. A plethora of high-quality black-and-white photographs, sketches, and antique advertisements will draw readers into this dynamic history. Artist Stacey Schuett's illustrations suffuse the story with sunset pinks, oranges, and purples. Green and blue add depth and drama. Lazarus's thoughts are depicted as rainbow-colored swirls. Balancing the dreamy colors and effects, Schuett fills each picture with impeccable period details: bustled skirts, beribboned hats, and top hats and frock coats. Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge paints Wharton as a conflicted Victorian hero. Throughout her life, Wharton held to the teachings of her childhood that instilled in her an abiding respect for decorum, delicacy, and old money. Still, she bucked decorum by making money at writing, a career that was considered unladylike, as Wooldridge notes in The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton: a Biography (Clarion, 2010; Gr 6-9). The author chronicles Wharton's unconventional marriage and her travels abroad, which, ultimately, lead to Wharton forging an independent life in France. Dozens of charming black-and-white photographs of the writer, her family and friends, her homes, and her beloved dogs are offered in the book, along with reproductions of pages from Wharton's manuscripts, some of which she penned as a child. Until now, Wharton's life had been confined to a few in-depth biographies for adult readers. Wooldridge proves with aplomb (and fascinating detail and insight) that it's one that young readers can also appreciate. For all of her extraordinary trappings, Wharton is a likable person who turned either/or queries into thank-you-very-much-I'll-take-both decisions. Taylor made it happen. One day, as crowds of people looked on, assistants released Taylor—lock, stock, and (custom-designed) barrel—into the currents that rushed towards the falls. Over a dramatic spread, Van Allsburg presents a close-up view of the scene with the wooden container bobbing in the foreground, a tiny thing compared to the vast, white walls of water thundering down. Taylor survived the ride and met with moderate success on the lecture circuit until unscrupulous managers and fickle audiences forced her to give up touring. Colorful sidebars, special feature sections, and gorgeously reproduced antique photographs featuring diverse female cyclists, period news articles on bicycle etiquette for women ("Don't ask, 'What do you think of my bloomers?'"), and advertisements for related products. In the end, Macy connects the dots between the advent of cycling and the advancement of women's rights, including Susan B. Anthony's thoughts on the sport. Francois Roca's oil paintings are photographic in quality. His use of muted browns, reds, and blues lend the book a vintage look. Some of the paintings present bird's-eye views, some are close-ups. These alternating perspectives contribute to the story's energy and excitement. The text and illustrations overflow with symbols: Odetta's voice as a bird and beam of light, her guitar as a stringed version of heaven, and her songs as dozens of birds flying over sunlit cotton fields. A final spread depicts the tall, elegant Odetta with a cape cascading down her shoulders as she embraces scores of people: "Black keys/and white keys/singing TOGETHER/to create HARMONIOUS sound!" Angel describes Joplin's early gigs, her growing popularity, and her increasingly erratic, self-destructive behavior. Without going into detail, the author addresses Joplin's promiscuity, drug use, and abortions, but also presents a gentler side of the musician, one which young readers might not be aware: her insecurity about her looks, her loyalty to her family, and her dedication to her art. Brimming with black-and-white and color photos and record and magazine covers, Joplin is a fully illustrated, evenhanded look at an iconic figure. We've Come a Long Way Read an interview with Candace Fleming on her book Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart in this issue of Curriculum Connections. Read an interview with Sue Macy about her book Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way). Read an interview with Chris Van Allsburg about his book Queen of the Falls. Related TeachingBooks.net resources >>> This article originally appeared in School Library Journal's enewsletter Curriculum Connections. Subscribe here. Please send this out sooner-like in the 3rd week of February. This way, those of us in rural areas, can get a head start on requesting these titles through inter-library loan. Thank you for the wonderful article written by Anthony Horowitz. I particularly enjoyed the last paragraph when he addressed the question of "what to do with children who don't read." The article was a delight to read and I intend to share it with my language arts teachers. Thanks for the great list! I included it in our links on our Kidlit Celebrates
Women's History Month blog!
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From A to Zora
Heidi Hemming and Julie Hemming Savage have gathered hundreds of individual stories from diaries, letters, interviews, family histories, and books, and woven them into a seamless whole in Women Making America (Clotho Press, 2009; Gr 6 Up). Offering a panoramic view of our nation, the authors present the stories of these diverse women beginning with the 1770s and ending with the present day. Issues such as work, home, education, and the arts are all considered.More Than Just a Cowboy's Sweetheart
By the 1840s, the east coast was old hat to some. Americans surged westward in unprecedented numbers. Longing to leave the crowded, increasingly urban landscape of the East, many people sought the thrill of open land and the adventure of the rugged West. Women worked right along with the men. Out of these pioneers grew the ever-evolving idea of the American cowgirl.A Poet Speaks for the People
Back in the urbanized East, one young woman wielded a pen instead of a lasso. In Liberty's Voice: The Story of Emma Lazarus (Dutton, 2011; Gr 3-5) Erica Silverman describes, in elegant prose, how, from a young age, her subject loved the written and spoken word. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lazarus "listened...and from somewhere deep within, words grew and images took shape. Emma began to write." Lazarus's talent and her compassion for immigrants led to an opportunity to write "The New Colossus," the renowned poem that graces the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.No Angel in the House
Lazarus died in 1887 at the age of 38. Had she lived longer, she would have seen the changes in store for women. By the turn of the century, the issue of women's rights enveloped the social consciousness on a national scale. In the early 1900s, women across the country rallied for suffrage. Some strove for labor and medical reform. Others raised children and tended to domestic duties. Almost certainly, some women pursued all of these activities. One woman of the time, Edith Wharton, did none of those, yet her writings were then, and continue to be, eloquent critical appraisals of social mores.More Fun Than a Barrel Monkeys (and Wetter)
While Wharton wrote about elegant society, one of her contemporaries sought financial security in a manner that the writer almost certainly would have responded to with raised eyebrows. In Queen of the Falls (Houghton Mifflin, 2010; Gr 1-5), Chris Van Allsburg describes an episode in a 63-year-old widow's life. The year was 1901 and Annie Edson Taylor had no prospects and limited resources. She considered working as a store clerk or a cleaning woman, but she was too "proud." To her, the logical alternative was to find fortune as the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.Fin-de-siècle or Fun-de-cycle?
Taylor might have fared better if she sought her fortune by learning to ride a bicycle. In Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) (National Geographic, 2011; Gr 5-8) Sue Macy explains how the invention and popularization of the two wheeler in the late 1800s and early 1900s changed women's lives forever. Macy's light, conversational style and her enthusiasm for her subject infuses the book with sparkle and wit. She explains the sport was ridiculed by some as a vulgar and unhealthy activity for women. In addition, the author examines the evolution of fashion in cycling circles, and the changes in bicycle design in response to women's fashions.No Glass Ceiling Here
Once women took to wheels, it was only a matter of time before they took to the sky. Other children's biographies have been written about Amelia Earhart, but none has such style and substance as Candace Fleming's Amelia Lost: the Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Schwartz and Wade, 2011; Gr 5-9). Chapters alternate from lively descriptions of Earhart's early years to dramatic accounts of worldwide efforts to locate her after her final flight. A few descriptions of amateur radio operators who claim to have heard Earhart's distress calls add immediacy. One, a 15-year-old girl, transcribed what she heard: "Send us help...Amelia take it...hear it...I need air...." Abundant black-and-white archival photographs of the pilot, reproductions of related ephemera, and maps enhance the text and heighten the book's appeal.Earhart might be the most famous aviatrix, but she was not the only one. Author Tami Lewis Brown pays homage to Elinor Smith, a contemporary of Earhart's, in Soar, Elinor! (Farrar, 2010; Gr 3-6). From the time she was a girl, Smith wanted to fly. She took flight lessons and in 1928, at the age of 16, she became the youngest pilot in the United States. In her lively picture book, Brown relates how at 17, Smith planned and executed a stunt—flying under all four bridges on New York's East River. She practiced by "weaving through ship masts like a skier attacking a slalom course." To avoid colliding with a Navy destroyer during the actual stunt, Smith had to fly her plane under the Brooklyn Bridge sideways.
Singing Sweet Freedom's Song
As the 1900s progressed, more women sought personal fulfillment outside the domestic setting. Professional musicianship was one such outlet. While the South was an unlikely place for a black child to find her muse during the Jim Crow years, that's just where Odetta found hers in the "spirituals, gospel, prison and work songs" she heard. In Odetta: The Queen of Folk (Scholastic, 2010; Gr 3-6), Samantha Thornhill and Stephen Alcorn create a luminous tribute to a musician whose career spanned decades and for whom social justice and equality were always themes in her music.Music and Madness
During the 1960s, Odetta's music inspired the careers of other musicians, including Janis Joplin. In Janis Joplin: Rise up Singing (Abrams, 2010; Gr 9 Up), Ann Angel explores the influences and personal decisions that shaped this conflicted musican. A part of her longed for what her Texas hometown classmates wanted: a home, a husband, and babies. Mainly though, Joplin desired personal freedom and the opportunity to sing.
Thirty years ago, when Women's History Month became official, there was a dearth of biographies featuring females for young readers. The intervening years have closed that gap somewhat with quality titles about women throughout history and from all walks of life. Perhaps in anohter three decades, there won't be a need for Women's History Month. History will be history, recognized as something made by both women and men. Listen to Ann Angel introduce and read from Janis Joplin
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Posted by Mara on March 2, 2011 08:43:23AM
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