Women of Color Make Their Presence Known

March 21 - Today's post provided by TheHappyNappyBookseller

 

I loved the movie A League of Their Own, directed by Penny Marshall. The story is inspired by the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. It's been years since I've seen it but I still remember a lot of it.  Geena Davis was fearless behind the plate, and of course the now classic scene of Tom Hanks screaming, "there's no crying in baseball."

Another smaller scene I will never forget is when the players are practicing and a ball gets away from Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell's characters.  On the other side of the fence three Black woman are walking past. When asked to return the ball, one of the woman just guns it back.  All the women just stare at each other for a blink of a second.  The Black woman is clearly good enough to play but can't because of her race.   

The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, by Russell Freedman, the story of singer Marian Anderson, broke my heart.  Anderson was rejected many times because of either race or gender. 

It's not lost on me that both examples I've given feature Black women.  It's second nature for people to focus on what they feel most connected to.  The trick is to recognize this and make a conscious  effort to think outside of yourself.            

One book I discovered last March was Amelia to Zora: Twenty-six Women who Changed the World, by Chin- Lee Megan, illustrated by Halsey Sean Addy.  A few of the women featured are Babe Didrikson Zaharias, an athlete that excelled at every sport she played; Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin, an astronomer and the first female professor at Harvard University; Nawal El Sadaawi a doctor and fighter for woman's rights; Grace Hopper inventor and computer pioneer; Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit -an Indian diplomat and the first woman president of the United Nations.   I love that the woman included are as diverse as their accomplishments. 

 It's no secret Women of Color  face more obstacles in life and I am always moved by their stories.  Below are a few of the ones I've loved.   

Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo, illustrated by Lin Wang- The first Asian movie star in Hollywood. If you get a chance watch this great interview with the author.


The Little Piano Girl : The Story of Mary Lou Williams by Ann Ingalls and MaryAnn Macdonald, illustrated by Giselle Potter -  Not only was Mary Lou Williams a jazz pianist she was also a  composer and arranger.  In the afterword there is a Duke Ellington quote - "Mary's music retains a standard of quality that is timeless. She is like soul on soul."

In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage by Alan Schroder,  illustrated by JaeMe Bereal - Augusta Savage was one of the primary artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Thanks to this biography I know that Savage created  a sculpture for the 1939 World's Fair in New York, "The Harp."

She Loved Baseball by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Don Tate. The story of Effa Manley, co-owner of the Brooklyn Eagles, a Negro League Baseball team. Manley is the first woman to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Skit Scat Raggedy Cat : Ella Fitzgerald by Roxanne Orgill, illustrated by Sean Qualls.  We get a whole lot of Ella. Perfect for anyone who loves Fitzgerald's music and for those who are not familiar with her work.   

Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Carl Angel - One of only two Chinese American women to serve in Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program during WWII. Moss includes some wonderful photographs in the back, including one of Maggie in her uniform and Maggie's mother building Liberty ships, hardhat and all.
    
Side by Side/Lado a Lado by Monica Brown,  illustrated by Joe Cepeda- Dolores Huerta is an activist and co founder of National Farmers Workers Association with Cesar Chavez. There are a few children's biographies on Cesar Chavez, although as far as I know this is the first one that pertains to Dolores Huerta.

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler-  This is my favorite children's biography on Wangari Maathai. My interview with the author can be found here. 

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in  the Bronx by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Edel Rodriquez - A timely biography on the first Latina judge to serve on the Supreme Court.  

I did my best to place the biographies in a timeline order. This last one should be somewhere in the middle but I felt its gender and racial unity made it the perfect book to end with.  

The Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-girl Swing Band in the World by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney - The Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all women swing band in the world. When formed in 1937 the band included a Chinese saxophonist, a Hawaiian trumpeter and a Mexican clarinetist, along with Black musicians. In 1943, White musicians join the band for the first time.  

All of these women refused to let anyone deny them their rightful place in history.  Knowing what all they have accomplished in spite of everything fulls me with so much joy.  All of these biographies make sure their contributions, successes and sacrifices are not forgotten. 

Editor's Note:
TheHappyNappyBookseller is a bookseller and baseball fan in Atlanta Georgia.
Author Audrey Vernick, mentioned above, has shared her experience of writing She Loved Baseball in an earlier post.

Booktalks for Women’s History Month

MARCH 15 Today's post is provided by Abby the Librarian

I am always on the lookout for great titles to booktalk for Women's History Month, so I wanted to share a few of my favorites here with you today!

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade, 2011)

You know the story of Amelia Earhart, right?  She was a famous female pilot, flying across the country and even across the Atlantic Ocean back when airplanes were not nearly as common as they are today.  But Amelia Lost tells Amelia's story like no other book has.  The book switches between biographical information about Amelia and the story of the days of her disappearance.  In a gripping narrative, Candace Fleming relates what happened on the day that Amelia Earhart disappeared.  There were several reports of civilians (even children) picking up what might have been snatches of Amelia's radio broadcasts as her plane crash-landed on a remote island in the Pacific!  Can you imagine turning on your radio and hearing Amelia Earhart's voice calling for help?

This book brings Amelia's story to life as no other book has done.  Even if you think you know the story of Amelia Earhart, it's worth picking up Amelia Lost to give it another look!

Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

What do chocolate chip cookies, windshield wipers, and flat-bottomed paper bags have in common?  They were all invented by women!  Girls Think of Everything gives a glimpse at some of the many, many products invented by women. In some cases, women weren't allowed to patent their own inventions. In some cases, they had to fight to keep their ideas from being patented by men. In some cases, they weren't even allowed in the factories to oversee their own products being produced. But thank goodness women kept inventing things!  Short entries are accompanied by collage illustrations and a list of additional inventions by women is included in the back matter.  Bring along some of the items mentioned in the book and see if kids can guess what they have in common.

Skit Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald by Roxanne Orgill, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Candlewick Press, 2010).

Ever since Ella Fitzgerald was a little girl, she had an unstoppable love for music.  When she was 14, her mother died, leaving Ella all alone and with no place to live.  But Ella didn't give up on her dream of performing.  She kept going to auditions, even though she looked like a "raggedy cat" since she didn't have money for fancy clothes.  It was hard at first, but people could see she had something special: her music made people want to get up and DANCE!  And soon, she wasn't a "raggedy cat" anymore, she was a "rowdy-dowdy high-hat baby" climbing the charts.  Ella went on to win 14 Grammy awards, including one for lifetime achievement.   Play some of Ella's music for the kids (I'm fond of the following clip if you have access to YouTube:)

Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (And What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt Children's Books, 2000).

Which woman was not only one of her country's most successful rulers but also threw parties that lasted for 18 days?  Which woman forbid her subjects to call her queen, taking the title of king instead and leading her country in a war for its independence?  Which woman, when hit in the face with a rock during the middle of a speech, used her sari to cover the blood and kept speaking?  (Elizabeth I of England, Nzingha of West Africa [Angola], Indira Gandhi of India, respectively.)  In Lives of Extraordinary Women, Kathleen Krull gives us brief biographies, complete with juicy details, of 20 outrageous women from all over the world.

A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson by Michelle Y. Green (Dial, 2002).

Ever since she could remember, Mamie Johnson loved playing baseball.  And I'm not talking softball here, I'm talking hardball.  She was a fabulous pitcher, striking out the boys in her neighborhood.  The problem?  Mamie was born in 1935, a time when women were not allowed to play professional sports.  When the All-American Girls' Baseball League was developed after many male baseball players went overseas to serve in the army, Mamie was hopeful that she could follow her dreams at last... but the League would not accept her because she was black.

Mamie still didn't give up.  She went on to play with the Negro Leagues - yep, a men's baseball league - and Mamie held her own. Her strong right arm took her far!

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick, 2009).

In 1960, the Space Race was all the rage and astronauts were American heroes.

They were also men.

Enter Jerrie Cobb and the rest of the "Mercury 13". In the early '60s, 13 women took and passed the same physical and psychological tests that men took to qualify for NASA's astronaut training program. But the "Mercury 13" women were not allowed to become astronauts, despite the fact that they were expert pilots. In fact, no woman went into space until Sally Ride did in 1983 and even then she didn't pilot the ship.

Almost Astronauts tells the story of the extraordinary women who fought for their right to make history, to go into space as qualified, talented astronauts.