Mrs. Harkness and the Panda

March 4 - Today's post is provided by Amy of Hope is the Word

Many women down through history have done unexpected things that make them not only champions for their gender, but also heroines for the more obvious reasons.  Alicia Potter’s 2012 picture book biography, Mrs. Harkness and the Panda (Knopf, 2012), is the story of just such an unlikely heroine. It is the story of Ruth Harkness, who in 1934 kissed her husband goodbye as he sailed off to China in search of a panda to bring home, the first of its kind to be seen in the United States.  Ruth Harkness stayed home and designed tea gowns, as was expected of a woman in her time, though she did expect to join her husband at the end of his expedition.  However, tragedy struck, and Ruth received word that William Harkness had died in China.  In Ruth Harkness’ own words, “I had inherited an expedition.”  She set out for China despite the naysayers and despite complications and difficulties.

After many people told her it couldn’t be done, Ruth found a champion and encourager in a young Chinese man she called Quentin Young, and he helped her on her journey in a multitude of ways, from packing for the trip (no small task!) to navigating the waterways and mountainous terrain.  Ruth Harkness and her expedition finally found their panda, and when she brought baby Su Lin home to the U.S., “panda-monium” broke out.  In addition to introducing these black and white furry creatures to what quickly became an adoring public, Ruth Harkness also gained for herself a new title:  “woman explorer.” 

Mrs. Harkness and the Panda was awarded a 2012 Cybils Award in the nonfiction picture category.  Not only is this an engaging and well-written tale about a little-known woman from history, it is also beautifully illustrated by the inimitable Melissa Sweet in her trademark watercolor and mixed media style.  Using actual maps, Chinese characters, and facsimiles of newspapers, Sweet’s illustrations evoke the feeling of both the time and place in history.  This is an excellent biography that appeals to a variety of ages and is well deserving of the accolades it has received.  Highly Recommended!

Editor's Note:
Amy is currently a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of three (soon to be four!) children.  She has worked as a public lbrary aide, a public high school English and history teacher, a public elementary school librarian, a community college reading and English instructor, and a supervisor in a university media and curriculum center.  Her latest job was as a Cybils round 2 judge in the nonfiction picture books category.  One of her greatest joys is sharing books with her children and helping set them on the path to being total bookworms.  (It is working, by the way!).  She blogs about books, reading, and home education at Hope Is the Word.  

Amy @ Hope is the Word

A Woman Explorer and Giant Panda Mythbuster

March 28 - Today's post provided by Practically Paradise

Quick! Name ten explorers. How many of them were women? Perhaps you listed Sacagawea or Amelia Earhart? Did you include Delia Akeley, Christina Dodwell, Mary Kingsley, Florence Baker, Alexandrine Tinne, Gertrude Bell, Alexandra David-Neel, Florence Von Sass Baker, Isabella Bird Bishop, Annie Peck, Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Eva Dickson, Marie-Anne Gaboury, Jeanne Baret, Josephine Diebitsch Peary, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Freya Stark, Valentina Tereshkova, Robyn Davidson, Liv Arnesen, Kira Salak, Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Harriet Chalmers Adams, or Ruth Harkness?

Ruth Harkness

If it weren’t for Alicia Potter’s sharing the story of Ruth Harkness in Mrs. Harkness and the Panda, I would not have begun to seek names of women explorers. Melissa Sweet illustrates this gem from Alfred Knopf, 2012. This picturebook retelling of the story of Ruth Harkness’ expedition to China to bring back the first live panda inspired me to delve more into women explorers, particularly Ruth Harkness.

Deborah Watson-Novacek created pages on squidoo for Female Explorers.   Her article aided my exploration and helped provide many helpful links. I was able to read several accounts of Ruth Harkness’ achievements including

·      Harkness, Ruth, The Lady and the Panda, Carrick & Evans, New York, 1938

·      Kiefer, Michael, Chasing the Giant Panda, 2002, ISBN 1-56858-223-4

·      Croke, Vicki Constantine, The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal, 2005) ISBN 0-375-50783-3 http://vickicroke.com/theladyandthepanda.aspx

·      Masloff, E.B., "A Time for Loving Pandas", Published on http://www.Femexplorers.com (2002)

·      The Panda Baby http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/the-panda-baby/cub-quest/1977/ 

·      The Wikipedia article “Ruth Harkness”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Harkness  Women should be reading these articles, correcting, updating, and writing more of our history.

I have often wondered why some people in history had such a strong desire to travel, to wander, and to explore that they were willing to give all in their efforts. What qualities did these people possess that enabled them to achieve more than others? None of these people were perfect. Most had conflicts in their personal lives and many did not reap great benefits from their explorations.

The article in the Christian Science Monitor by Adelle Waldman on August 9, 2005, “How a party girl went in search of a panda: The true tale of a 1930s New York socialite who trekked Tibet determined to bring home a cub.”  reviewed Vicki Constantine Croke’s book "The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal."  The writer states “That Harkness had flaws does not, of course, make her an unworthy subject for a biography - on the contrary, it perhaps makes her all the more interesting.”

To me, this acknowledgement of flaws makes a biography far more believable. Croke’s novel provides additional information and does not have to sift through details to fit in a 32 page picture book. Her 400 page novel provides a great deal more information, but also lauds Ruth Harkness a bit much for my own cynical taste. I can overlook this as I supplemented my reading with other accounts of Ruth Harkness’ deterioration and death at 46.

Kate Kelly on the web site America Comes Alive highlights Ruth Harkness as an Influential Woman. America Comes Alive! is a site Kate Kelly created to share little-known stories of America’s past. She wrote, “When I selected Ruth Harkness for the 2012 “Inspirational Women” list, most descriptions were of a “socialite-turned-explorer who brought home the first living panda.”  As I read in greater depth there was much more that was unsaid regarding the well-being of wildlife as well as the life of Ruth Harkness. Her life tells a particular story of her time.  I was captivated, though it certainly was not what I expected!”

What does it take to motivate anyone, male or female, to leave their comfort zone and achieve something no one else has ever done? Ruth McCombs Harkness was a New York City fashion designer and a socialite. She had been friends with her husband William Harkness for ten years but married to him only two weeks before he left on a mission to bring back the first live giant panda. Since William had already successfully brought back Komodo dragons, it was a shock for Ruth Harkness to learn that while William was delayed in China, he died of throat cancer before setting out on his expedition.

As Croke states, “Left with a tiny fortune, Harkness decided to use it to follow in his footsteps, a stunning decision for a woman who wouldn't even walk a city block if there was a taxi to be hailed."

Alicia Potter in Mrs. Harkness and the Panda manages to point out the criticism Ruth faced from nearly everyone when she announced her intentions to finish William’s expedition. In describing the “Panda-monium!” that occurred when Mrs. Harkness arrived in America carrying the panda in her arms, Alica Potter simply vindicates Ruth Harkness’ bravery and determination by stating:

“None of these newspaper stories called Mrs. Harkness crazy. Or foolish. Or reckless. They called her a “woman explorer”.”

Potter downplays much of the conflicts Ruth faced; although she does acknowledge in the author’s note how our values and ideas towards animal conservation have changed. Since our story ends with Su Lin finding a home at the Brookfield Zoo, and Ruth Harkness finding a home in the “rugged, beautiful mountains of faraway China”, the chronology of events provided important follow-up details. Since I wrote my very first research paper on the giant panda in elementary school, I have been intrigued by this animal that was thought to be mythical even in most of China.

Su-Lin, Brookfield Zoo

The giant panda became known to the Western world in 1869 when a French missionary Pere Armand David sent a dead pelt to the Museum of Natural History in Paris. In 1929 Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt (sons of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt) killed a giant panda which was then stuffed and exhibited at the Chicago Field Museum. Between that time and Ruth Harkness’ journey, twelve well-staffed and equipped professional expeditions to China failed to collect a single live specimen.  How did Ruth Harkness expect to succeed where they had failed? Somehow with her 22 bags of luggage and her guide Quentin Young, her expedition succeeded. There were rumors and innuendos to be faced, but Ruth’s achievements stood.

Even when women achieved milestones in exploration and adventure, they often could not receive the benefits. Deborah Watson-Novacek notes  “The adoration of the American public did not help Ruth overcome the chauvinism of the all-male institutions in the field of science and exploration, however. Many institutions snubbed her before the Explorers Club did her the "honor" of being the first women allowed to attend a dinner with the "gentlemen." It should be noted, however, that the Club listed Su-Lin, not Harkness, as their guest of honor for the evening.”

Other sources I explored after reading this picture book include:

“Honest, Fair, Courageous and Strong: Four Picture Books Starring Real-Life Heroines” by CANDACE FLEMING Published: March 9, 2012 New York Times Sunday Book Review which reviews Potter’s Mrs. Harkness and the Panda. Fleming states “Sweet’s mixed-media images, which incorporate maps, handmade paper and delicate watercolor drawings, give the book the feel of a travel journal — a wonderful way of accompanying Harkness on her journey.”

The web page A Woman’s Bridge has an article on April 15, 2011, “Ruth Harkness and the Giant Panda” by Yoon Joung Lee. The mission of A Woman's Bridge Foundation, established in 2009, was to create a sense of unity, vision, and purpose among women as a community of professionals, wives, mothers, and simply as people. “Women must reach out to each other more to value and protect each other whether as housewives or as corporate executives. We create partnerships for women in need, particularly those in local area shelters, and help raise supplies and awareness for local area women’s' shelters and services. We also establish dialogue to further thought on national and international women’s' issues.”

While searching for Ruth Harkness’ obituary, I found instead the obituary for Adelaide “Su-Lin” Young who is the namesake for the panda Ruth Harkness brought to America.

“In the 1930s, Adelaide “Su-Lin” Young, the pampered and glamorous daughter of a New York nightclub owner, morphed into one of the first female explorers to venture into the part of China devastated by last week’s earthquake.” (Earthquake referred to was the Sichuan province 2008 earthquake http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/12/china)

Mrs. Young was believed to be the first American female explorer to enter the Tibetan-Himalayan region.  San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/17/BAI410N79S.DTL

World Wildlife Foundation:  In 2004, the results of the most comprehensive survey of China's giant panda population revealed that there are nearly 1,600 pandas in the wild, over 40 percent more animals than previously thought to exist. These findings came from a four-year-long study of pandas and their habitat carried out by the State Forestry Administration of China and WWF. In Mrs. Harkness and the Panda, Alicia Potter states in the end notes that there are approximately 2,500 giant pandas in the world. I do wonder about this discrepancy.

Facts from the Brookfield Zoo history of the Giant Panda:  The Brookfield Zoo was the first zoo in the world to have a giant panda. The Brookfield Zoo was formally opened on June 30, 1934. Su Lin (male) was born approximately in September 1936. His name means "A Little Bit of Something Precious" in Chinese. He was captured by Ruth Harkness in the bamboo forests of the Szechuan mountains of southwestern China on November 9, 1936. Su Lin came to the Brookfield Zoo on February 8, 1937. He choked on an oak stick, developed complications from an infection, and died in April, 1938.  The Brookfield Zoo had a Giant Panda Zoo from 1937-1953.  

Panda Cam’s and Links:

·      National Zoo http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm

·      San Diego Zoo http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/

·      Atlanta Zoo http://www.zooatlanta.org/1212/panda_cam

·      Memphis Zoo http://www.memphiszoo.org/pandacam

·      Track the 4 US zoo cam’s at once http://home.comcast.net/~dreidel/pandacams/index.html

·       Bifengxia Panda Reserve http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/china-panda-cam-1

·      Wolong Giant Panda Center, Wolong, Sichuan Province, China http://www.oiccam.com/webcams/index.html?/panda

·      Hong Kong Ocean Park Zoo has four cam’s http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/eng/main/index.html

·      Pandapoly http://www.pandapoly.com/pandacams.html 

None of these sources provides all the answers I seek. They provide “pieces of the puzzle” or “strands of life’s weavings”, glimpses into the past, but mainly more questions. Isn’t the study of history simply the refining of our questions and the rebuilding of our knowledge structures? We are constantly changing as we learn. Our questions change as we change.

I still ponder why some people in history explore more and what qualities they possess that enable them to achieve more than others. I am excited each time I discover a new gem like Mrs. Harkness and the Panda because I know authors will continue to create new biographies to try to answer these questions – and maybe provoke a few more in the process.

Editor's Note:  Diane (R. Chen) Kelly writes the blog Practically Paradise for School Library Journal. She has taught in Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Germany and Taiwan with 20 years at the elementary level & 3 at the middle school. She recently finished a term on the ALA executive board which kept her busy at conferences but she remains active on Council & in committees for ALA, TLA, TASL, TEA, MNEA, FTRF, and AASL. All blog posts reflect solely Diane's opinions. You can email her at dianerchen @ gmail dot com.

Beautiful Minds: Teaching about Women in the Sciences through Picture Books

March 11 - Today's post provided by Teach with Picture Books

Nothing speaks more loudly than a good role model. As a teacher and a father to two daughters, I absolutely believe that. I therefore love picture books which chronicle the lives of women who, from their very childhoods, proved themselves to be innovative, independent, and incredibly resolute.

Additionally, I believe that picture book biographies serve a universal role in helping students realize that childhood dreams and interests may determine the paths they follow as adults.

Take, for example, Julia Morgan, who as a child loved to build. In her mind, buildings were huge puzzles, and she spent hours seeking to discover how all the pieces fit. Greatly influenced by her engineer father and her cousin Pierre LeBrun, an architect who designed many of Manhattan's stone churches and its first skyscrapers, Julia dreamed of becoming an architect.

The book Julia Morgan Built a Castle, written by Celeste Davidson Mannis and illustrated by Miles Hyman, describes Julia's dogged determination to first enter the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and to then gain acceptance as a competent professional (unlikely for a woman in the early 1900's). Her success in both endeavors is inspiring to read, yet the story doesn't end there.

Morgan was a tireless architect who completed hundreds of projects while simultaneously working on William Randolph Hearst's incredible San Simeon estate (the "castle" of the book's title), which required twenty eight years to complete. In her design, Morgan ingeniously suspended the estate's massive 345,000 gallon Neptune Pool from steel reinforced concrete beams so that it would sway, rather than buckle, during California's frequent earthquakes. A simple narrative and Miles Hyman's glowing, sculpturesque illustrations combine to make this book a satisfying journey through the life of one remarkable woman. 

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully, describes how a curious girl became one of America's most prolific inventors. McCully helps readers see that Mattie's childhood fascination with how common things work (a sled, a kite, a foot warmer) fueled her adolescent desire to improve the way machinery operated. While working in a textile mill at age twelve, for example, Mattie witnesses a serious injury when a rogue shuttle ejects from a loom and strikes a friend in the head. Young Mattie mulls the problem over; her solution, a metal guard, is adopted by all of the factories in Manchester. Injuries from flying shuttles cease immediately.

Mattie's later invention of a machine designed to create flat-bottomed paper bags (yes, those same bags we still use today) revolutionized the industry. Earlier flat bags needed to be held with one hand when packing, and ripped easily when overfilled. When she tries to file her patent for the machine, however, Mattie finds herself in a patent war with a man who most certainly stole her idea just days earlier. Fortunately, Mattie's detailed diagrams and meticulous notes prove her "priority of invention," and from that point forward she pursues a life as a professional inventor. Her obituary refers to her as "the Lady Edison."

Stone Girl, Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning, written by Laurence Anholt and illustrated by Sheila Moxley, provides readers with a more personal look at a scientist's childhood. This makes perfect sense in the case of Mary Anning, since she was only twelve when she discovered the fossil of a great sea monster on the coast of England. This ichthyosaur would be just the first of hundreds of rare fossilized animals Anning would uncover over her lifetime.

But the road to her success is not an easy one. At the age of fifteen months, Mary survived a bolt of lightning which killed her nurse and two other girls. Her father, who encouraged her interest in fossils, died when Mary was just a girl. The children who should be her friends teased her, calling out, "Stone Girl, Bone Girl, Out-on-your-own Girl!" Despite these obstacles, Mary Anning pursued her passion for the past, paving the way for other scientists in the field of evolution.

If you dig (pardon the pun) that story, you might also be interested in two other versions of Mary Anning's story. Catherine Brighton's The Fossil Girl: Mary Anning's Dinosaur Discovery tells the story of Mary's discovery through graphic novel format, complete with frames and speech bubbles. Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon, written by Jeannine Atkins with pictures by Michael Dooling, presents a much more mysterious, shrouded England, offering the reader just the slightest glimpse of the actual ichthyosaur. The emphasis is more on Mary's determination to see the job through. Teachers might consider sharing all three versions with students to generate discussion about choices made by writers and illustrators alike.

If you're seeking a book aimed at more independent readers, look no further than Jane Goodall: Researcher Who Champions Chimps, written and illustrated by Mike Venezia. (This book is from Getting to Know the World's Greatest Inventors and Scientists, just one of the excellent biography series created by Venezia).

From her earliest childhood, Jane dreamed of traveling to Africa to study the animals of that continent. Jane's father was a race car driver, often absent from the home scene, so Jane and her mother would spend hours in the garden observing plants, insects, and small mammals. Later, when evacuated from London during the bombings of World War II, Jane spent time exploring the rocky cliffs and pine forests of Bournemouth. She and her friends even formed a nature club, where a favorite pursuit was racing snails. During this time she continued to feed her imagination with tales of Tarzan and Dr. Doolittle.

Eventually Jane traveled to Africa where she met the legendary Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife, Mary. Leakey assigned her the task of observing chimps in a remote area, previously unexplored by human beings. Goodall's discoveries about those creatures amazed even Leakey himself. Jane was one of the first scientists to observe, for example, that chimps created and used tools. Scientists had believed that only humans did this!

Jane Goodall: Researcher Who Champions Chimps differs from the other books listed here in one special way: it introduces students to many standard conventions of nonfiction text: bold words, captions, a glossary, and an index. For that reason, this book would serve as a terrific transitional text to more formal textbooks which students will be seeing as they progress through school.

An equally intrepid yet much less celebrated explorer of Africa is brought to life in Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa, one of many fascinating biographies written and illustrated by Don Brown. Unlike Jane Goodall, Mary Kingsley experienced a childhood which was by all measures bleak and uninspiring: her mother was constantly bed-ridden, her father was habitually traveling, and her brother was simply absent (sent off to school, although he was younger than Mary). Mary's only companionship were the many books in her father's library, and she devoured them (though how she even learned to read was a mystery).

With the passing of her mother, Mary was finally free of all obligations. Her dream? To explore West Africa. At the time such an enterprise was unthinkable, for West Africa was a land hostile even to its own people. How could a woman, a single woman for that matter, survive? But survive she did. Mary battled crocs, swam with hippos (not intentionally!), tumbled from a ledge through a thatched roof, stumbled into a spike-filled animal trap, was thrown from a canoe, and survived all manner of insects and other discomforts. She not only lived to tell her tale, but to write it as well, in two books which became best sellers. Her collected specimens not only filled her own home, but the showcases of the British Museum of Natural History as well. Mary was thirty when her mother died, and passed away herself at age thirty-eight, yet she lived more in those eight years than most people do in a lifetime!

Discussing the Books

The following questions might prove useful in discussing any of these books with children:

• What are your interests? How might those interests affect what you choose to do for a living?
• What is success? How does a person become successful?
• What kinds of things might create obstacles, or problems, for someone who is trying to pursue their dreams?
• Did women always have the same opportunities as men? What were some jobs that women were expected to do? What were some jobs reserved for men alone?
• This book begins by telling us about _____'s childhood. Why do you think the author started there? 
• Was following her dream difficult? What made it so hard? Who or what may have encouraged her, and convinced her to continue?
• What is determination? How was it exemplified through _______'s actions?
• If this woman were alive today, what advice might she give us?
• Let's look again at the illustrations. How do they help us understand the story better? What information do the illustrations supply that the text doesn't? How did the book's illustrator know what these events looked like?
• What other information does the author provide?
• What questions do we still have about ___________?
• If ___________ were alive today, what would surprise her most about how the world has changed since her time?
• If we had to give __________ a nickname, what would we choose?

As a follow up activity, students could create a new book jacket for any of these books. You might even consider covering the book's actual cover while reading it aloud, and only uncovering it later once all students have completed their designs. At ReadWriteThink you'll find a nice interactive which explains the elements of a traditional picture book cover, and you can additionally have students create the entire book cover online (or just a cover or back) using the cool interactive Book Cover Creator. (Personally, I might have some parent helpers cut down some brown paper shopping bags, and use the reverse blank sides for the project; this would be a neat homage to Margaret E. Knight).

Online Explorations of Women in Science

Women's Adventures in Science features a cool look at real, live scientists practicing in their fields. Students can choose from Ten Scientists, and each is linked to a kid-friendly site featuring a biography, videos, games, and related links. These biographies are rich, and definitely made for the third grade and above crowd. As a class project, students could be paired and assigned a scientist to research using this site.

You'll also find an Interactive Timeline (1900 to present), which, while not well populated, definitely points out that the number of women in the fields of science has increased dramatically during the last century. The Ask It section allows students to pose their questions about science to real scientists. They can also browse answers to dozens of questions already asked. And, of course, a Games section!

Another terrific site to explore is PBS's very hip SciGirls, which is filled with projects, profiles, and videos featuring women in science. This site is awesome in that it helps students (okay, mostly the girls) realize that they, too, can be scientists, right now! (Note that site features a section which allows girls to interact socially, so standard precautions should be taken to address Internet safety issues). The Teacher's Overview provides a number of different approaches as well as additional resources for using the site.

I personally think a SciGirls Club sounds like a pretty awesome idea for a school or homeschool group, and this site would be a great place to start! Don't forget, though, to inspire your girls with some real-life role models, and those provided in the books I've shared are highly recommended.

Need one more? Cool interactive games to learn about inventions and inventors (including lots of women inventors!) can be found at Inventive Kids. No registration or annoying pop-ups, just easy-to-play games that teach as kids play
Looking for more on- and off-line explorations in science? Check out Exploring Invention with Picture Books at Teach with Picture Books. In addition to the dozen plus sites listed there, be sure to check out some terrific science bios written by author Kathleen Krull, a recent contributor to the Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Blog.

Editor's Note: Keith Schoch is a sixth grade Reading/Language Arts teacher in Bedminster, NJ. In addition to presenting workshops and writing teaching guides, Keith shares practical teaching tips through three blogs: Teach with Picture Books, How to Teach a Novel, and Teaching that Sticks.