Roller Derby Rebels, Then and Now

March 6 - Today's post contributed by Sue Macy

Roller Derby Rebels, Then and Now

Independent women did not have an easy time in the United States in the years directly following World War II. Those who had tasted economic freedom filling in for men in wartime industries found themselves summarily dismissed when Johnny came marching home. America’s focus turned inward, from defending liberty on a global scale to creating families and strong local communities. In this new world order, women were expected to find fulfillment cooking, cleaning, and nurturing their children.

Gerry Murray

But Gerry Murray and Midge “Toughie” Brasuhn never got that memo. Gerry and Toughie spent the late 1940s careening around Roller Derby tracks at breakneck speed, deliberately knocking opponents off their feet. And their actions made them wildly popular. Toughie and Gerry gained more newspaper ink and attracted more fan fervor than their male teammates as they helped make Roller Derby a bona fide cultural phenomenon.

Midge Brasuhn

My fascination with Roller Derby in the 1940s led me to write Roller Derby Rivals, a nonfiction picture book, illustrated by Matt Collins, about Toughie and Gerry during a memorable New York City series in 1948. I had touched on the Derby years before in my book, Winning Ways, but now I dug deeper. I read every article I could find in the half dozen New York dailies that covered the bouts, along with lots of background material on Derby history, Toughie and Gerry, and the development of television. (The Derby and TV had a symbiotic relationship, each feeding interest in the other.)

I also did research on the rebirth of Roller Derby. Early in the 21st century, the sport saw a groundswell of grassroots participation, driven, appropriately, by women. In 2005, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association was formed to set standards for leagues around the world, and in 2011, teams from 13 nations competed in the first women’s Roller Derby World Cup. A check of statistics at the end of last month found 3,139 women’s flat track teams and 246 men’s flat track teams worldwide.

Of course, there are differences between the Derby as played by Toughie and Gerry and the current generation of skaters. Toughie and Gerry were professionals, while today most skaters pay to play. The early Derby stars competed on a banked track, shaped like the top of an inverted cone, which allowed them to create more speed and more dramatic moves. Most teams now skate on flat tracks. And skaters in Toughie’s and Gerry’s day exaggerated the drama and the violence in order to build audiences and satisfy the fans. Today’s game is still fast and exciting, but the emphasis is on safety. Skaters usually are required, or at least strongly advised, to purchase personal accident and liability insurance.

Even today, though, Roller Derby seems to attract rebels, channeling the spirit of Toughie and Gerry and their compatriots. At the first match I attended, featuring New Jersey’s Ironbound Maidens, the clear standout was an elegant-skating, tattoo-covered powerhouse aptly named Jenna von Fury. I once wrote that in the 1940s, Roller Derby was “the most liberating women’s sport of its time.” One could argue that it still is.



Sue Macy has written more than a dozen nonfiction books about sports and women’s history. Although she prefers to have her feet planted firmly on the ground, she can imagine another life where her Roller Derby name would be Bodoni Bold, after the typeface she used when she was editor of her junior high school newspaper.

One More Thing: Check out http://bookriot.com/2015/02/10/39-killer-literary-roller-derby-names/ for a fun listing of Roller Derby names with a literary bent. Some of the best names are in the comments section.


Photos courtesy of the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame & Museum

Editors Note:
Holiday House has prepared an Educator's Guide for Roller Derby Rivals.

Emily Arnold McCully's thoughts on Lizzie Murphy and Ida M. Tarbell

March 4 - Today's post contributed by Emily Arnold McCully

I have always loved baseball. I was good enough that the boys let me play with them. A good mimic, I developed a throwing arm by watching the pros. I never owned a proper mitt but there was always a right-handed one to borrow when I needed it. I loved catching the ball with a swift twist that cradled it in the sac between the thumb and forefinger of the mitt. Leather! Malleable, fragrant, durable. The ball was great, too, with its hard red stitching.

I threw and batted lefty, but could switch hit too, which supposedly confused the opposing pitcher. Pitching seemed the supreme skill, so I drew a strike zone on our garage door. Every afternoon after school I hurled my ball at it. Pretty soon, I hit the zone consistently and soon after that, I was pitching in most games.

The Dodgers were still in Brooklyn when I was a child, and I listened faithfully to their games on the radio. I can still name most of the greats on that team—not just Jackie Robinson.

Childhood ball playing inspired one autobiographical baseball book. Its protagonist was a mouse who practiced the way I did in order to make the team. My other baseball book, one of a series about a pair of zany grandmas, is called GRANDMAS AT BAT.  That book and MOUSE PRACTICE were really just warm ups, waiting for Lizzie Murphy, aka Queen of the Diamond.

When an old friend in Providence, R.I., told me about her, I realized I had been handed my ideal heroine. It was news to me that a real life woman had actually played on professional baseball teams alongside men and the arrangement was accepted by everyone. It underscored the cyclical, even whimsical nature of women’s quest for equality, since that couldn’t happen today. Lizzie’s career was fairly long, but the most interesting part of it, for a picture purposes, was the beginning, when she asserted herself and demanded equality.

While I was working on the Lizzie Murphy story, I researched the life of a very different heroine - Ida M. Tarbell - who did not demand equality because she believed that women were inherently equal to men. For her, the crisis lay elsewhere. American democracy was threatened by the greed and corruption unleashed in the Gilded Age. Tarbell thought women could save it. She argued that they must devote themselves to raising children to be good citizens. Ironically, Tarbell was urging women to stay home at precisely the time Lizzie Murphy was out playing professional baseball.

Tarbell’s ideas about women were disturbing to me, but at the same time, I admired her great achievements as a “muckraker” (she preferred the title “historian”) and the way she made her way brilliantly in a man’s world. As I worked on her biography, I tried to get under her skin and understand the contradictions in her makeup.

Tarbell’s investigative journalism helped bring about important reform. Her story is relevant to our lives today. Money has corrupted public life much as it did a century ago.  And as quaint as her ideas about women may seem to girls today, with all of their freedoms and opportunities, most people agreed with her in the very recent past.

A teenager after World War II, I expected to accommodate myself to a world run by men, as Tarbell had. (We both expected to be subversives in that world). But my generation brought on the second wave of feminism and demanded that the world must change and admit women on an equal footing with men. That work is ongoing! I hope to keep contributing to positive change with stories of the achievements of women who earned their place in history.

Emily Arnold McCully has been creating children’s books for fifty years. Her stories often feature historical or fictional girls and women who challenge convention. MIRETTE ON THE HIGH WIRE was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1993. IDA M TARBEL was a finalist this year for the YALSA award for best nonfiction for teens.

Bring New Children's Books to Life with Crafts and Games

March 2 - Today's post contributed by Penny Peck

Many children prefer to learn with hands on activities, so crafts and games are a great way to celebrate women in history.  Instead of sounding like a history lesson, this interactive format can attract a wide age range of children who will enjoy the crafts and art projects, as well as some fun games. Today, I am going to outline some simple do-it-yourself programming ideas tied to new children’s books on great women and their accomplishments.

The books and related activities are divided by age appeal, so you can use an activity with the appropriate grade level. For example, you can use books for young children in a storytime, along with the suggested hands-on activity, or use one of the books for tweens in a book discussion group who would also enjoy the related project. If a class comes for a library tour, you can read one of the short books suggested for that grade, or do booktalks if the class is 4th grade and up, and offer one of the activities that relate to those books.

You can also offer just one of these activities as a “passive program.”  Just set up the supplies for one activity, along with a poster outlining the instructions, for parent and child to do together at a library table.  These activities can also be adapted to the classroom, bookstore, or museum, since they fall into the type of “living history” activities that are so popular.  

Here are several books and a hands-on activity relating to each, which would be a great focus for a Women’s History program.

Books for Grades 4-8:















Conkling, Winifred. Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson’s Flight from Slavery. Algonquin, 2015.

    Born a slave in 1782, Edmonson dreamed her children would be free. Filled with illustrations and sidebars, this history of their escape on a schooner in 1848 is an empowering look at an unknown true story. For a related activity, make paper quilt blocks similar to those thought to be used on the Underground Railroad: http://page.reallygoodstuff.com/pdfs/154227.pdf .  

Draper, Sharon M. Stella by Starlight. Atheneum, 2015.

    Stella uses writing to help her cope with the challenges of being an African-American girl in 1932 in North Carolina. Combining both sobering issues like segregation with humorous incidents like a Christmas pageant, this thoughtful novel will inspire readers to try their own hands at writing. Make journals out of cereal boxes: www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/cereal-box-books .

Gherman, Beverly. First Mothers. Clarion, 2015.

    Short sketches of the U.S. Presidents’ mothers are the focus of this engaging collective biography. Watercolor and pencil illustrations bring these important figures to life – perfect for Mothers’ Day! For an activity, children can make Mothers’ Day cards for the important women in their lives: www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/mothers-day/ .

Grimes, Nikki. Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts. Orchard/Scholastic, 2015.

    One-page vignettes describe the fictional friendship of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, with factual information that shows the shared goals of these two women would have made them fast friends if they had met. Dramatic illustrations by Michelle Wood add to the enjoyment.  For an activity, have readers write a letter to a famous woman they would like to meet, including elected officials, sports figures, entertainers, scientists or astronauts, or business leaders: www.readingrockets.org/article/introduction-letter-writing .

Kanefield, Teri. The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement. Abrams, 2014.

    Barbara Rose Johns is no longer an unsung hero in the Civil Rights movement, thanks to this book packed with photos and interesting information. In 1951, Johns led a walkout of her segregated high school to protest unfair conditions. For a related activity, readers can do something to benefit their own schools, including holding a book drive for the school library: www.instructables.com/id/Easy-book-drive-at-your-school/ .

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. The Red Pencil. Little Brown, 2014.

    Set in Darfur about ten years ago, this novel in free verse describes the life of a 12-year-old girl and her experience in a refugee camp. Amira dreams of going to school to learn to read and write, something her traditional mother doesn’t support. Celebrate this true-to-life novel by making sandpaper art. Using crayons, draw on coarse sandpaper to create pictures of animals, scenery, or people. www.dltk-kids.com/world/egypt/sand_paper_art.htm.

Books for Grades 1-3:

Fern, Tracey E. Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud. Farrar, 2014.

  Prentiss was the navigator on the Flying Cloud, a ship that made a record-breaking voyage from New York City to San Francisco in 1851. This picture book biography brings that achievement to life. Children can make a ship model following these instructions: www.redtedart.com/2013/06/08/boat-craft-ideas-for-summer/ .

McCully, Emily Arnold. Queen of the Diamond: The Lizzie Murphy Story. Farrar, 2015.

    Lizzie Murphy became a professional baseball player in the early 1900’s, and is the star of this picture book biography. Murphy’s life is an excellent example of a person standing up for herself against prejudice, doubt, and opposition. For a related activity, offer these baseball word search puzzles: http://homeschooling.about.com/od/freeprintables/ss/baseball.htm .

Editors Note: Emily Arnold McCully will be our featured contributor on March 6th!

Paul, Miranda. One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia. Millbrook, 2015.

    In the 1980’s, Isatou Ceesay noticed that discarded plastic bags were harming the environment and animals in her native Gambia, so she came upon a solution. She crocheted strips of the plastic bags into purses to sell! Have tweens create their own bookbags by weaving strips of plastic bags: www.instructables.com/id/Woven-Plastic-Bag-Bag/.

Tonatiuh, Duncan. Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation. Abrams, 2014.

    In both the straightforward text and the dramatic, stylized illustrations, readers will learn about the court case that integrated California schools in the late 1940’s. The Mendez family fought for all children to attend local schools at a time when segregated “Mexican” schools were the norm. For a related activity, children can make some authentic Mexican crafts such as papel picado:  www.teachkidsart.net/mexican-papel-picado/ .

Books for Preschool – Kindergarten:

Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious. Readers to Eaters, 2014.

    This picture book biography celebrates Berkeley restaurant-owner and chef Alice Waters, who founded the Edible Schoolyard Project to promote healthy school lunches. One activity could involve growing a library vegetable garden if you have the space. Or, have children decorate flower pots planted with carrot seeds for their own home mini-gardens: www.kiddiegardens.com/painting_clay_pots.html .

Spires, Ashley. The Most Magnificent Thing. Kids Can Press, 2014.

    In this picture book, a girl attempts to make a “magnificent thing” with unsuccessful results, until she learns to plan her project. Readers will take away the notion that invention takes several attempts as well as solid planning. For a related activity, use up all your leftover craft materials and recyclables and allow children to make their own collages, sculptures, or art projects: http://artfulparent.com/collage-art-ideas-kids .

Penny Peck has been a children's librarian for over 25 years; before that, she was Snow White and Mother Goose at Children's Fairyland in Oakland, ran a nightclub, worked as the wardrobe mistress for the Berkeley Ballet, and was an agent for a standup comedian. Her experience includes performing thousands of storytimes, leading hundreds of book club discussions for students in grades 4-12, conducting hundreds of school tours and assemblies, and reviewing children's books and media. She is editor of "BayNews," the newsletter for the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California, www.bayviews.org.  Since 2002 she has been a part-time instructor at San Jose State University, specializing in classes on youth and teen services and programming, and has written three books on children’s services, published by Libraries Unlimited, including Crash Course in Children’s Services: 2nd Edition (2014), Crash Course in Storytime Fundamentals: 2nd Edition (2015), and Reader’s Advisory for Children and Tweens (2010).

Making History - Babe Didrikson Zaharias

March 3 - Today's post contributed by Sandra Neil Wallace

Making History

If you’d asked Babe Didrikson Zaharias about being featured during Women’s History Month, she likely would have said to cross out the words “Women’s” and “Month,” and just talk about her making history. But that’s the very reason why she’s being celebrated: for her irascible drive, for establishing women’s professional sports, and for her records.

Babe never stopped “poking the record books full of holes.” She didn’t quit achieving greatness in the sports world until she lost her most significant battle—to cancer. Even then, Babe reinvented how we approached the disease, treating it as a foe and coining the phrase “cancer fight.”

Babe also shot to smithereens the idea of what femininity meant regarding a female athlete. All Babe needed was one week for the world to witness her brash talk and how she could more than back it up with gold medals in the hurdles and javelin, plus a silver in the high jump. She became the star of the 1932 Olympic Games.

Babe could sew but also brag, hit a golf ball as far as any man, play championship basketball, strike out Joe DiMaggio, and set the world record in the baseball throw (which still stands). At first, sportswriters loved the copy Babe provided, but then the male press corps turned vicious. And though it seems counterintuitive today, women’s athletic associations didn’t like Babe’s success one bit either.

What made Babe tolerate the adversity was her unshakable self esteem. She believed she was the greatest athlete in the world, and no one could change her mind. In researching Babe Conquers the World (Calkins Creek, 2014) we delved into her personal letters, interviews with many people who knew her, and the archives of the newspapers and magazines that covered her brilliant sports career.

Babe faced obstacles that would be insurmountable for many of us: poverty, supporting her family at age 18, riding donkeys and barnstorming the country solo to become a professional athlete, reading headlines and gym posters warning girls not to be a “muscle moll” like Babe. Being called an “it.”

These challenges only fueled Babe to make lofty predictions, then deliver under the glaring spotlight of the press box, where the mostly male contingent rooted for her to fail. Like all great women who challenge and accomplish great things, Babe was a threat to male dominance.

But Babe didn’t have the future of other women in mind when she created the LPGA. She became a professional and golf-circuit founder to experience what she knew all along--that she was a great athlete.

It was only when Babe was diagnosed with cancer (twice) that she found a higher purpose. Thousands of letters poured in from other cancer patients telling her how much hope she brought them, and Babe grew determined to break records on behalf of all cancer survivors. When Babe won the U.S. Open golf title less than a year after her body-altering surgery, she single-handedly changed the world’s outlook on the disease.

Many of us in sports owe our careers to Babe’s pioneering spirit. As a sportscaster, I would have loved to have interviewed Babe. And I suppose Babe Conquers the World is my way of thanking Babe for being courageous, so women like me could be courageous, too. But Babe’s trash-talking and loud-mouth bravado have been silent for nearly six decades. The fact that most girls and women athletes have no idea who she is, what she accomplished, and how it affects them, makes Women’s History Month so important. My co-author (and husband) Rich Wallace and I are proud to have Babe Conquers the World released this month.

Sandra Neil Wallace is a former ESPN sportscaster and the author of two acclaimed novels published by Random House/Knopf: Little Joe, a South Carolina Children’s Book Award finalist, and Muckers, a Booklist Bookends Best Book of 2013. Visit www.sandraneilwallace.com 

Passing it On

March 27 - Today's post provided by Ann Malaspina



Passing It On

          When I was researching my book Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper, I contacted Coachman’s son, Richmond Davis, for help in telling her story.  He relayed some of my questions to his mother, who was approaching her nineties. With their assistance, I pieced together Coachman’s amazing life—from running barefoot on dirt roads in Albany, Georgia, during the Great Depression and the closed doors of Jim Crow segregation, to her history-making performance at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, when she became the first black woman  to win an Olympic gold medal.       

            As I was sorting out the details of her winning jump on August 7, 1948 in Wembley Stadium, Davis called to say that Coachman wanted me to mention her childhood teachers back in Albany.  During the 1920s and 1930s, the segregated schools for black children in Albany had few resources except for their teachers. So I made sure to tell about the teacher who went out of her way to take the restless young girl to a track meet, where they watched a boy do the high jump. Soon, Coachman was making high jump bars out of sticks and strings and practicing every chance she got. The teacher had helped her find a passion—and a future Olympic star was already soaring.

          I also mentioned the high school coach who recognized Coachman’s high-flying potential before she was even on his team. He invited her to the Tuskegee Relays at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama.  The school founded by Booker T. Washington hosted the annual athletics contest for young black athletes during a time when segregation laws banned competition with white athletes.  Coachman didn’t have the proper clothes, so a group of teachers pitched in for tennis shoes, shorts, and white socks, making it possible for her to compete at this important event.

         

Cleve Abbott

        At the Relays, Tuskegee’s Coach Cleve Abbott saw Coachman win the high jump with record-breaking grace.  The pioneering coach, who started the Relays in 1927, had launched women’s basketball, tennis, and track and field teams at Tuskegee long before many schools, black or white, supported women’s athletics.  Abbott made a difference in Coachman’s life, too.  He drove all the way to Albany to ask her parents to let her enroll at Tuskegee and join the Tuskegee Golden Tigerettes track and field team.  Reluctantly, her parents let her go.  As Davis explained to me, young black girls in Albany did not leave home back then.  Traveling was dangerous and money was scarce, and Coachman would rarely be able to come home from school, but Abbott and the other coaches and teachers at Tuskegee would watch out for her.

            Coachman worked hard on the track and off at Tuskegee.  She sang in the choir, played on the basketball team, and sewed football uniforms to earn room and board…and she won the high jump, as well as sprints and relays, at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national meets every year.  For ten years straight, first at Tuskegee and later at Albany State College (now Albany State University), Coachman, aka “The Tuskegee Flash,” was the national high jump champion.   

        

Alice (far right) and her relay team

            When the U.S. Olympic team sailed for England in July 1948, Coachman was one of nine black female athletes on the track and field team, a significant change from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when two black women made the team.  Her teammates had trained at Tuskegee, Albany, Tennessee State and other black colleges where coaches and teachers had opened doors and lit the flames. While Coachman took home the team’s only gold medal,  Audrey Patterson won the bronze in the 200-meter race, another groundbreaking first for a black woman.

            

Alice (2nd from left, top row) and the U.S.women's track and field team on the ship S.S. America bound for England. 

            With the Summer Olympic Games returning to London this year, Coachman is again in the news. In January, my publisher Albert Whitman & Company, generously donated Touch the Sky to every student at the Alice Coachman Elementary School in Albany, and Coachman paid a visit to sign a few copies. Afterwards, the principal told a local television reporter, “Mrs. Coachman Davis gave them such an inspiring message about hope and dreams, but most of all, about determination.”

             The same message Coachman’s teachers and coaches had given her.

Hey, let’s pass it on!

Editor's Note:

Ann Malaspina’s next book, Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President (Albert Whitman & Company), will be out in time for the presidential election in November.

Giveaway:  Would you like to win a copy of Touch the Sky and other books featured on this month's Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month blog?  If so, leave a comment on any post--each comment will give you an entry to win.  A winner will be chosen at random early in April.  

Stitching Stories in the Ring

March 25 - Today's post provided by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Stitching Stories in the Ring by Andrea Davis Pinkney

There’s something to be said for women and the power of storytelling. Like quilting, we can stitch color and tradition into something warm and beautiful, by the simple act of sharing memories that become the stories that shape us.

When I was a girl, my mother, grandmothers and aunts could sit for hours spinning family tales that came from the patches of their lives and times.
From my Aunt Rosa there were tales of my grandma’s gold tea set, and the sweet Sunday gatherings where women in fancy hats drank tea and talked about local doings.

My mother is a storyteller, too. She loves to recount her years growing up in the small town of Elmira, New York. Mom was one of the few African American girls in her high school. Her big dream was to leave that slow, tiny place to attend college. This was the 1950s when a college education was a far-off dream for a black girl. Many told Mom she couldn’t attend college, but by finding a way out of no way, she did.

From my grandmothers and great-aunts came stories of traveling from Elmira to New York City’s Harlem, where black folks strode with clothes that dazzled and dreams that shone.  These feisty ladies wanted to explore the freedoms of big-city inclusion, rather than be confined to small-town bigotry. (Sadly, they learned that prejudice exists everywhere.)

My grandmother and great-aunt enjoying a stroll in Harlem

As a child, I never grew tired of these storytelling “quilting times” with Mom, my grandmas, Aunt Rosa, Aunt Theodora, and all the women who were very bright flowers on the Williams and Davis family trees.

I didn’t know it then, but these women were shaping me as a writer.

There was one story that was told again and again. It was a tale that stuck with me — the story of my great-grandfather, Cyclone Williams. Cyclone was an amateur  kid-boxer growing up during the Great Depression. More than anything, this determined youngster wanted to be just like the legendary boxer Joe Louis, who in 1937, became the heavyweight champion of the world.  Cyclone’s story is one of tenacity and triumph. 

My grandmother was very proud of her father’s legacy. She kept an archival photograph of Cyclone on a special shelf in her home, and seldom let that picture too far out of her sight.

Cyclone Williams, my great-grandfather

After my grandmother passed away, my Aunt Rosa had strict rules about the framed image of Cyclone. You could look at the photo, but please don’t touch it. 

As a young person, I looked and looked at the stocky build, clenched fists, and hopeful expression in Cyclone’s eyes. These made me wonder.

What was this kid fighting for?

I became so intrigued with my great grandfather’s story  — and with my grandmother’s telling of it — that I started to write my novel Bird in a Box. I was so eager to share what the Williams women had told me about this kid!

I soon learned that to write about a boxer, I had to become one.  If I wanted to make my character Willie Martel —the boy in the story who is based on my grandfather Cyclone – truly authentic, I had to box in the ring.

So, I got myself a pair of 1937 vintage Spalding boxing gloves, hired a trainer, and got to work!
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My circa 1937 boxing gloves

 I punched and jabbed, and hooked a peanut bag. And, with determined feet, I learned to pivot properly so that my opponent couldn’t land a fist near my ribs.  

I soon felt the sting of hard work in the ring, and the fire in my belly that told me to keep going even when I wanted to quit.

Me, ready for the ring

After the novel was written, I later realized that while boxing is considered mostly a man’s sport, it was the power of the women in my family that gave me the grit and fortitude to step through the ropes.

Even though my mom, grandmas, and aunts dressed in their Sunday bests and drank tea, these women also beat some incredible odds.  As African Americans making their way through the Great Depression, world wars, segregation, and the civil rights movement, they had the tenacity and strength of any boxer. And, with each and every hurdle, they emerged as champions.

Editor's Note:

Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling andaward-winning author of many books for children and young adults, including picture books, novels, works of historical fiction and non-fiction. Andrea’s novels include Bird in aBox, a Today Show Al Roker Book Club For Kids Pick, and hailed by the New York Times as “a powerful middle grade novel”; and With the Might of Angels, a book in the DearAmerica series. Andrea’s picture books include Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down,a Parenting Publication Gold Medal winner, winner of the Jane Addams BookAward, and the Carter G. Woodson Award for historical works for young people; Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride, a Jane Addams HonorBook and School Library Journal “BestBook of the Year,” the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, which also won the Carter G. Woodson Award for historical works for young people; and Duke Ellington, a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor Book.