Review of One Step Further, by Katherine Johnson, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

One Step Further

My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission

by Katherine Johnson
with her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore
illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

National Geographic Kids, 2021. 48 pages.
Review written January 5, 2022, from my own copy
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful picture book biography that tells about the groundbreaking life of Katherine Johnson and weaves in the experiences of her three daughters growing up with her example.

The book uses photographs and artifacts from Katherine’s life to give wonderful visuals, giving a taste of the times. The daughters are pictured with speech bubbles giving commentary on the artifacts and the main text, effectively pulling the reader into the story with child guides.

Segregation affected Katherine’s life, and it also affected her daughters’ lives. When she moved in order to find a job that used her talents, her children experienced segregation. But I also like that when she became a human computer for NACA, there were many other college-educated African-American women working there (segregated from the white computers). The kids are pictured saying about that:

Our neighborhood was full of smart and stylish Black women mathematicians. At church, at school pickups, at summer cookouts, in our kitchen.

They took such pride in their jobs and looked so perfect every day. We didn’t know quite what they did, but we wanted to be like them.

The theme of “one step further” is carried through the book, as Katherine continued to push to go one step further. Her daughter Kathy also went one step further by participating in sit-ins to protest racial segregation.

The book progresses through to Katherine’s important work on the moon launch and how John Glenn asked Katherine to check the math of the mechanical computer before he was willing to take off.

I like the page at the back that tells how NASA named a building and then an entire facility after Katherine. It also tells how her daughters followed in her footsteps, with one working for NASA and the other two working as teachers.

There are ten pages of detailed historical notes after the main story, so older kids intrigued by this can learn how they can find out more. This biography is put together in a wonderfully inviting package.

natgeo.com

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Review of Latinitas, by Juliet Menéndez

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Latinitas

Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers

by Juliet Menéndez

Godwin Books (Henry Holt), 2021. 102 pages
Review written December 11, 2021, from a library book

I’m not a big fan of collective biographies. When there are page after page of short bios, the details start to run together. But this book is something special.

Latinitas has forty one-page biographies of Latinas who accomplished great things, with about half of each bio focusing on the subject’s childhood. There’s a folk-art style illustration of each subject as a girl, with a banner giving her name and what she’s known for. She’s holding things that symbolize her accomplishments.

Something I liked about this collection is that I hadn’t heard of a large proportion of these truly amazing woman. I am so glad their stories will become more well-known. They come from countries all over Latin America. The first woman featured, a military leader, was born in 1651 in Mexico, and the last one, an Olympic gymnast, was born in 2000 in the United States.

I hope many young Latinas find this book and are inspired!

julietmenendez.com
mackids.com

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Review of Thanks to Frances Perkins, by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Kristy Caldwell

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Thanks to Frances Perkins

Fighter for Workers’ Rights

by Deborah Hopkinson
illustrated by Kristy Caldwell

Peachtree, 2020. 40 pages.
Review written September 17, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I love the way this book starts, making the book personal and rousing curiosity:

Let’s start with two math questions, especially for you younger readers.
1. How many years will it be until you turn sixty-two?
2. What year will that be?
Now, hold onto your answers until the end, when you’ll find out why this is important.
And why (when you get there) you’ll want to thank Frances Perkins.

The book goes on as a vivid picture book biography showing key events in Frances Perkins’ life. It shows Frances helping with her mother in a soup kitchen and tells about conditions for workers at that time. Frances herself witnessed the Triangle Waist Company fire on March 25, 1911, when she’d been having tea with a friend nearby. After that, she went to a memorial gathering and was inspired to fight for justice.

The book shows the good work she did and the various ways she helped workers, first in New York State, and then as the Secretary of Labor, the first female cabinet member, under Franklin Roosevelt.

Frances Perkins contributed many ideas to FDR’s New Deal, and this book mentions them and focuses in on Social Security. I love this description of Social Security:

Today, Social Security provides help for survivors: the children or spouse of a worker who has passed away. It supports children and adults with disabilities. The program also benefits older people who’ve paid Social Security taxes during their working lives.

Through Social Security, we’ve built a society where we help one another. An idea that began as a slip of paper in Frances Perkins’s desk has become a vital part of our democracy.

Now back to those math questions. Although it might well change in the future, right now most people can begin receiving Social Security benefits as early as – you guessed it – age sixty-two.

So whether you benefit from Social Security now or on some far-off day, think of this dedicated public servant and remember to say, “Thanks, Frances!”

The book also shows how hard she worked and the obstacles she faced to bring this to fruition. It’s lovely to realize how much the vision and dedication of one woman contributes to our well-being today.

deborahhopkinson.com
kristycaldwell.com
peachtree-online.com

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Review of My Lost Freedom, by George Takei

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

My Lost Freedom

A Japanese American World War II Story

by George Takei
illustrated by Michelle Lee

Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written May 13, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

George Takei, who ended up acting in the original Star Trek series, was five years old when his family was imprisoned in the Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II. He’s already told his story in They Called Us Enemy, a graphic novel. Now he’s put the story in picture book biography form, so that even elementary school children can learn from it.

Now, George was five. As I noticed in the graphic novel, his five-year-old perspective looked for fun in the big adventure of a train ride and a move. For example, the first camp they went to was Camp Rohwer, and he thought the soldiers on the train were trying to roar like a lion when they called out the name. (He didn’t know that soldiers on train cars with rifles wasn’t a normal way to go on vacation.)

He highlights how much his parents did to give George and his two siblings a happy and comfortable childhood. But it also comes out how much they lost. And how completely unjust it was for the government to do this to people born in America. Even when they got sent to a higher security camp because his father wouldn’t sign up for military service, George highlights the movie theater there and the stray dog they adopted.

The main part of the book ends with a happy reunion with George’s father, who had gone ahead of them after they were released to rent a home. There’s extensive back matter which reveals how hard it was to establish a home after the war with prejudice still high and only $25 from the government. A government that had confiscated all their possessions and bank accounts before the incarceration.

But I like the way George Takei doesn’t come across as bitter. Instead, he clearly stands up for what democracy should be — something his father taught him. After some young men in the camps protested, this happened:

One night, angry soldiers came roaring into the camp in jeeps, their rifles aimed at us. They were looking for radicals, but more often than not, innocent men were thrown in jail. I remember hearing women crying and wailing.

When I asked Daddy about the radicals, he said, “In a democracy, the people have the right to assemble and protest.

I’m glad this man is telling the story of what happened to him as a child, in hopes that such a thing will never happen in America again.

mklillustration.com
rhcbooks.com

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Review of Unbound, by Joyce Scott with Brie Spangler and Melissa Sweet, art by Melissa Sweet

Art, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Unbound

The Life + Art of Judith Scott

by Joyce Scott
with Brie Spangler
and Melissa Sweet
Art by Melissa Sweet

Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 44 pages.
Review written November 9, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Unbound is the story of Judith Scott, an artist who made wrapped fiber art sculptures.

This story is extra powerful, because it’s narrated by Judith’s twin Joyce. She starts when they were young and did everything together.

But when Joyce went to Kindergarten, she was separated from Judith, who had Down Syndrome. Before long, Judith was put into an institution, and the book expresses how terribly Joyce missed her sister.

Judy has never spoken a word. We wonder if she will ever talk. The doctors say that she is slow and will not get better, but they don’t know Judy like I do. She is perfect just the way she is. She knows things that no one else knows and sees the world in ways that I never will.

It isn’t until Joyce grows up and starts her own family that she is able to get Judith out of the institution to come live with her.

Since Joyce worked as a nurse, she found an art center that had programs for people with disabilities. It took some time, but that was where Judith discovered how much she enjoyed making wrapped fiber art sculptures.

For years, Judy wraps and weaves, creating fantastic, cocoon-like shapes filled with color.

She wraps her head in beautiful hats, scarves, and ribbons, becoming her own work of art.

Before her death, Judy’s sculptures achieved worldwide acclaim.

This story is especially inspiring because her twin sister believed in her and saw the beauty in her all along.

Melissa Sweet’s mixed-media art evokes Judith Scott’s work so beautifully. (There are some photographs to give you the idea as well.)

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Review of Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of, by Helaine Becker and Kari Rust

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Emmy Noether

The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of

by Helaine Becker and Kari Rust

Kids Can Press, 2020. 40 pages.
Review written April 19, 2021, from a library book

I’m always happy to find a picture book biography of a mathematician, and practically over the moon when that mathematician is also a woman!

It’s tricky, though, to write a picture book biography of someone who worked with high-level ideas. Emmy Noether helped Albert Einstein with the equations for his theory of relativity and did her own work that “completely changed our understanding of the universe.”

But the book also explains why most people haven’t heard of Emmy Noether, even though the work she did was ground-breaking and revolutionary.

A big part of that was that she was working in a field that didn’t welcome women at the time, and in order to get to do the work, she had to work behind the scenes – and wasn’t always given credit.

Another part was that she had to flee Germany at the start of World War II and died shortly after she left.

This book does an admirable job simply explaining high-level concepts. It also does a wonderful job getting across Emmy Noether’s exuberant personality and eagerness to talk about math. Here’s a bit after she had finally gotten her degree but wasn’t allowed to be a professor anywhere in Germany:

Emmy loved math so much, she found a way to teach anyway – she did it for free! That let her keep doing the research she loved and come up with new ways to think about and do math.

But just like when she was a student, other mathematicians took credit for her work. Or “forgot” to credit her. They knew they could get away with it; if Emmy spoke up, she could get kicked out of the university, since she wasn’t supposed to be there.

It’s lovely to have a book that shows kids that loving math can be ladylike!

kidscanpress.com

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Review of Monument Maker, by Linda Booth Sweeney, illustrated by Shawn Fields

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Monument Maker

Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial

written by Linda Booth Sweeney
illustrated by Shawn Fields

Tilbury House Publishers in association with the Concord Museum, 2019. 64 pages.
Starred Review
Review written January 14, 2020, from a library book

You can tell this is a monumental book when you pick it up and browse through it. It’s thicker than most picture books, printed on heavy paper. The pages are large, done with exquisitely detailed artwork, and pictures of two of Daniel Chester French’s statues done extra big by turning the book sideways. Almost all the pictures are in shades of gray, except the frame of the story with modern kids examining his work and shown in color.

The book tells about the whole life of Dan Chester French, the sculptor of the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and of the Minuteman statue in Concord and of many more American statues.

He didn’t expect to become a sculptor when he grew up, but he witnessed great events – like the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. And it turned out that he liked making art.

The book tells about the influence of moving to the town of Concord, Massachusetts and the great thinkers who lived there. I liked the detail that he took lessons in art from Louisa May Alcott’s sister (the model for Amy in Little Women).

I never realized that Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, made smaller models of the statue of Abraham Lincoln and other people, stonecutters, were responsible for the final statue made of stone.

I like it when biographies of artists give you the feel for how the artist was inspired as well as what his art is like. This book does those things very well.

Twelve pages of back matter give more information. This is an engaging, informative, and inspiring book. It makes me want to go see more Daniel Chester French sculptures.

lindaboothsweeney.com
shawnfields.com
tilburyhouse.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Only Woman in the Photo, by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Alexandra Bye

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Only Woman in the Photo

Frances Perkins & Her New Deal for America

by Kathleen Krull
illustrated by Alexandra Bye

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2020. 44 pages.
Starred Review
Review written February 3, 2020, from a library book

Did you know that a woman named Frances Perkins was instrumental in designing the New Deal? I didn’t. She was also the first female cabinet member, and it was twenty more years before there was another. This picture book biography tells her story and how she was in the right place at the right time to make a big impact on people’s lives.

The author tells us that young Frances was too shy to speak when she was a child, even to ask for a library book. But she was encouraged by her grandmother, and when she saw injustices around her, she joined the new field of social work and spoke up to help people.

She spoke up for people in poverty and for worker safety. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where 146 people died. That made her all the more determined to be a voice for women being exploited.

Frances first worked in New York State, helping pass laws there to make workplaces safer. And that was where Franklin D. Roosevelt, the governor, appointed Frances the state’s industrial commissioner shortly before the stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression.

So when FDR was elected president, he asked Frances to be his secretary of labor. I like the double-page spread about her decision:

So Frances decided she’d accept the job – if FDR allowed her to do it her way. She had been thinking up ideas for years. Now she wrote all her requests on slips of paper, a to-do list for helping the most vulnerable.

At their meeting, she held them up, and she watched the president’s eyes to make sure he understood what she was planning. The scope of her list was breathtaking. It was nothing less than a restructuring of American society.

Their talk lasted one hour – until he finally said, “I’ll back you.”

The next spread shows Frances cleaning out the desk in her new office in the Department of Labor – the drawers were crawling with cockroaches!

The book goes on to explain – in picture book terms that are easy to understand – how hard Frances worked to help American workers. Her dream come true happened in 1935 when FDR signed the Social Security Act into law.

One interesting thing about the book that I find rather refreshing: It doesn’t talk about her marriage at all, except the note at the back where we learn that she was the sole support of her husband and daughter, both of whom had significant health problems. Since books about great men don’t always mention their families, there’s something I like about this picture book glossing over that. Though I did assume she was single and that’s how she accomplished so much, so part of me which that had gotten some attention in the main part of the book. But it’s a picture book biography of a woman who was far ahead of her time, and it does succeed in presenting the significant details of her life and making the reader want to know more.

KathleenKrull.com
AlexandraBye.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Ruth Objects, by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Ruth Objects

The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

written by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Disney Hyperion, 2020. 44 pages.
Review written February 12, 2020, from a library book

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a wonderful subject for a picture book biography, because her life story is an inspiring one of triumphing in spite of obstacles. She’s a trailblazer, clearing a path for other women to follow in her steps.

I enjoyed the book I Dissent a little more, since that was the picture book biography that first told me about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life. But this one fills a niche of being for a slightly older age group (good for upper elementary, I think). It gives more details of her life and her journey through law school, teaching, in courts, and to the Supreme Court. I liked that when she was teaching at Columbia Law School, she filed lawsuits for women workers there to get the same benefits as men. This book featured a lot of her cases that were about gender.

Doreen Rappaport has a series of picture book biographies. They all stand out for their large size with big, beautiful paintings of the subject (and always their face on the cover) and for the way she highlights quotes from the subject on every page. Those big paintings make this book memorable.

“Yes, women are here to stay. And when I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough women on the Court, and I respond when there are nine, people are shocked. But the Supreme Court has had nine men for ever so long, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

doreenrappaport.com
EricVelasquez.com
DisneyBooks.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of The Bug Girl, by Sophia Spencer with Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Kerascoët

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

The Bug Girl

(A True Story)

by the Bug Girl herself, Sophia Spencer,
with Margaret McNamara
illustrated by Kerascoët

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2020, 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written 02/20/2020 from a library book

This picture book is written in the voice of the author, who is a fourth-grade student – and does a marvelous job of telling other kids that it’s okay to love bugs.

Sophia begins with her first encounter with a bug – when she was two years old, in a butterfly conservatory, one butterfly landed on her and decided to stay the whole time she walked around the conservatory.

After that, Sophia became obsessed with bugs. She got books and videos about them and learned all she could about them. She collected bugs, and her mom let her keep them out on the porch.

In Kindergarten, other kids thought Sophia’s obsession with bugs was cool. But that changed when she got to first grade. Now they started teasing her and calling her weird. There’s a very sad page in that section:

Then I brought a grasshopper to school. I thought the kids would be so amazed by the grasshopper that they’d want to know all about it. But they didn’t. A bunch of kids crowded around me and made fun of me.

“Sophia’s being weird again,” one of them said.

“Ew! Gross!” said another. “Get rid of it!”

Then they knocked that beautiful grasshopper off my shoulder and stomped on it till it was dead.

Sophia became afraid to talk about the bugs she loved. She continued to be teased and excluded at school and called weird. She thought she’d have to give up her passion.

But Sophia’s mother was sad to see her so unhappy.

She wrote an email to a group of entomologists asking for one of them to be my “bug pal.” She wanted me to hear from an expert that it was not weird or strange to love bugs and insects. “Maybe somebody will write back,” said my mom.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Or at least call.”

We thought those scientists would be too busy to respond.

But an email came from an entomologist named Morgan Jackson who asked to put the letter online.

He asked other bug scientists – all around the world – to let me know if they had any advice for a girl who loves bugs.

That set off a flood of responses, with a hashtag: #BugsR4Girls

I couldn’t believe how many people around the world loved bugs as much as I did. And how many of them were grown-up women!

Some were scientists who wrote about the work they do in their labs. Others shared videos of themselves with bugs on their arms and sent pictures of themselves hunting bugs in the wild.

The response also set off more publicity of its own – Sophia got interviewed by newspaper reporters and even appeared on television.

Now, as a fourth-grader, Sophia has many other interests, but she still loves bugs.

This picture book presents all this in a child-friendly way with bright pictures and simple text. At the back are six pages of cool bug facts from Sophia.

margaretmcnamara.net
rhcbooks.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.