Counting on Katherine

How Katherine Johnson
Saved Apollo 13

Christy Ottaviano Books
Henry Holt and Company
(pub. 6.19.2018)

40 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Helaine Becker
    and illustrator: Dow Phumiruk

C haracter: Katherine Johnson

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "You've likely heard of the historic Apollo 13 moon landing. But do you know about the mathematical genius who made sure that Apollo 13 returned safely home?
     As a child, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted the steps to the road, the number of dishes and spoons she washed in the kitchen sink - everything! Boundless, curious, and excited by calculations young Katherina longed to know as much as she could about math, about the universe.
     From Katherine's early beginnings as a gifted student to her heroic accomplishments as a prominent mathematician at NASA, this is the story of a groundbreaking American woman who not only calculated the course of moon landings but, in turn, saved lives and made enormous contributions to history."

T antalizing taste: 
      

      "Katherine now found herself at the heart of America's space program. She worked as a 'computer' (electronic computers were not widely used yet), calculating long series of numbers.
     All the computers were women. They were given the tasks that men thought were boring and unimportant.
     That didn't bother Katherine. She knew that without her contributions, a spaceship couldn't reach its destination, nor safely return to Earth."
     

and something more: I'm thrilled to feature COUNTING ON KATHERINE for a number of reasons! The illustrator, Dow Phumurik, is the amazing illustrator of the last book I wrote, MAYA LIN - ARCHITECT OF LIGHT AND LINES which was also published by the terrific publisher/editor Christie Ottaviano (Henry Holt). We also share the same agent, the incredible Deborah Warren of East West Literary Agency. And, of course, the subject, Katherine Johnson, is such a terrific role model for children.
     I asked Dow to share a few thoughts about COUNTING ON KATHERINE and she kindly wrote:
     "I know we can’t change the past, but I can’t help but think how many more women mathematicians, engineers, and scientists we’d have today if her story had been widely known a few decades ago. 
     Today, I hope this book inspires many to work hard to make their dreams come true. Perhaps they, too, will make history in doing so. 
      And a very important date just passed: Katherine Johnson’s 100th birthday was on August 26th!"
      
     Thank you, Dow, for sharing your thoughts AND for illustrating this wonderful book, a true inspiration for all!

Maya Lin

Artist-Architect of Light and Lines

Christy Ottaviano Books

(Henry Holt and Company)
(pub. 5.2.2017)
32 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top  

A uthor: Jeanne Walker Harvey
      and illustrator: Dow Phumiruk

C haracter: Maya Lin

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "You may be familiar with the iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but do you know about the artist-architect who created this landmark?

     As a child, Maya Lin loved to study the spaces around her. She explored the forest in her backyard, observing woodland creatures, and used her house as a model to build tiny towns out of paper and scraps. The daughter of a clay artist and a poet, Maya grew up with art and learned to think with her hands as well as her mind. From her first experiments with light and lines to the height of her success nationwide, this is a the story of an inspiring American artist."    

T antalizing taste: 
      

"The first time Maya visited

the finished wall, she searched

for the name of the father of a friend.

When she touched the name, she cried,

just as she knew others would.

Thousands came that Veterans Day

to see and touch and remember.

Salutes, hands on hearts, honoring.

And every day since then,

visitors have done the same."

 
and something more: I cannnot begin to express my deep appreciation and admiration for everyone who has been involved in the creation of this book --  Deborah Warren of East West Literary Agency (my incredible agent who found a home, a perfect home, for my manuscript), Dow Phumiruk (the amazing illustrator who absolutely astounded me with her talent and perception), Christy Ottaviano (the publisher/editor who edited with the perfect gentle touch and allowed the book to blossom with her attention to detail and incredible talent and experience), and everyone else at Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt who contributed to the book. A picture book is truly a collaborative process, and so many people had a part in it. I truly feel as if I've won the literary lottery with the publication of this book -- it's more than I ever envisioned. 

    Thank you also to my dear family and friends who always support me and encourage me in my writing. I am honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to write this book about Maya Lin and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

    And today, Memorial Day, I learned from the National Mall NPS, that three new names are being dedicated today at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, bringing the total number of names to 58,318. My heartfelt thanks and appreciation and admiration to all who served.

Antsy Ansel

Ansel Adams:
A Life In Nature

Christy Ottaviano Books
(Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
(published 9.6.2016)
32 pages 

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor:
Cindy Jenson-Elliott
      and Illustrator:  Christy Hale

C haracter: Ansel Adams

O verview from the jacket flap

    "As a child, Ansel Adams just couldn't sit still. He felt trapped indoors and never walked anywhere - he ran. Even when he sat, his feet danced. But in nature, Ansel felt right at home. He fell in love with the gusting gales of the Golden Gate, the quiet whisper of Lobos Creek, the icy white of Yosemite Valley, and countless other remarkable natural sights.
     From his early days in San Francisco to the height of his glory nationwide, this book chronicles a restless boy's path to becoming an iconic nature photographer."
    
T antalizing taste
    
    "When Ansel was fourteen, his aunt gave him a book about Yosemite Valley. Ansel begged for a visit. The trip took two days by steam engine train and open-air bus.
     At Valley View, Ansel got his first glimpse of Yosemite Valley - the ripple-rush-ROAR! of water and light! Light! Light!
     It was love at first sight.
     One morning during the trip, Ansel's parents gave him a camera.
     He was off -
     Run-leap-scramble - SNAP!
     Rapid-rumble-tumble - RACE!
     Swoosh- flutter-flit - FLEE!
     Ansel's photos became a journal of everything he saw.
     From then on, Ansel went to Yosemite, camera in hand, to hike the High Sierra
     in summer light,
      icy white,
        glowing dawn,
          breathless height,
            danger by day,
              sparkling night,
                worlds of wonder - snap! -
                  in black and white."

and something more: I was excited to learn that ANTSY ANSEL was published by Christy Ottaviano Books, the incredible editor/publisher of my upcoming picture book biography MAYA LIN : ARTIST-ARCHITECT OF LIGHT AND LINES. I reached out to the author and illustrator of ANTSY ANSEL and asked if they would share some thoughts about their wonderful book. Thank you very much, Cindy and Christy! So much fascinating information!

Cindy Jenson-Elliott: 
"Here's my Antsy Ansel story. I am a teacher, environmental educator and garden teacher. Many of my books have to do with nature, or are designed to inspire families and teachers to head outside with children.  A few years ago, I went to an inspiring lecture by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. The lecture focused on his second book, The Nature Principle, in which he talks about how people of all ages have been saved by their contact with nature. He mentioned Ansel Adams, how he had been, by his own reckoning, hyperactive, and how his father had taken him out of school and let him run around outside as part of his education. Immediately the words "Antsy Ansel" popped into my head. I was so inspired by his story that when the lecture was over, I went home and began to research his life.

As I read Ansel Adams's autobiography --  full of  gorgeous language -- I felt an overwhelming urge to let his life inspire others. As I wrote, I tried to create Ansel's experience of the world -- how his attention flitted from one thing to the next, and how sensory stimuli bombarded him wherever he went. I tried to capture how trapped he felt indoors and how free he felt outside. I wanted readers to be with Ansel as  he felt the pounding roar of the waves at the beach, and the calming flicker of nature in his own backyard at Lobos Creek. I wanted them to feel what he felt. I had two mentors who helped me shape and reshape the story with this in mind -- Joy Chu, a book designer who had a good sense of how a story can support visual elements, and Andrea Zimmerman, a children's book author who worked endless hours with me to help me get it right.

Another connection I have with Ansel Adams is a mutual love for Yosemite. We both went to Yosemite for the first time when we were 14 years old. I spent an unforgettable week with my junior high school class at the Yosemite Institute. It was really life changing for me to hike in the spring thaw, see wildflowers begin to unfold under the melting snow, feel the spray of waterfalls and smell the bay laurel growing by streams.  As an adult, I return to Yosemite yearly. Every summer --  since my children were very small,  my family has spent a week camping in the High Sierra in Tuolumne Meadows. As I researched Ansel, I realized that many of the places my family goes are featured in his photos. So that has been a  wonderful connection, too. I love Yosemite's high country, and I feel so lucky that I am able to share that love with others through this book."

Christy Hale:
" Here are a few of my many research discoveries as I worked on the illustrations:
·     Young Ansel had a calico cat named Tommy. Tommy is featured in the second scene. 
·     A friend and I took a walk through Ansel’s boyhood neighborhood in San Francisco. We saw the outside of his childhood home (unfortunately being renovated). We also walked by Lobos Creek and down to Baker Beach. In Ansel’s day he did not see this, but the view now includes the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course the neighborhood is very much changed from when Ansel was a boy, but it was fun to try to imagine his world.
·    I was able to peek inside Ansel’s boyhood home via the Ken Burns documentary on Ansel Adams. I tried to be true to the style of fireplace and furniture, as well as the positioning of the window in the living room.
·   I attended an exhibit marking the 100-year anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. I photographed a scaled model of all the buildings and grounds, so once again I tried to imagine being Ansel and walking through the World’s Fair.
 ·    I found actual footage of Ansel climbing Half Dome as a teenager."

The House That Jane Built

A Story About Jane Addams

Christy Ottaviano Books
(Henry Holt)

(published 6.23.2015) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor: Tanya Lee Stone

      and Illustrator: Kathryn Brown 

C character: Jane Addams

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "'Ever since she was a little girl, Jane Addams hoped to help people in need. She wanted to create a place where people could find food, work, and community. In 1889, she chose a houseman run-down Chicago neighborhood and turned it into Hull House - a settlement home - soon adding a playground, kindergarten, and a public bath. By 1907, Hull House included thirteen buildings. Andy the early 1920s, more than nine thousand people visited Hull House each week.

      The dreams of a smart, caring girl had become a reality. And the lives of hundreds of thousands of people were transformed when they stepped into the house that Jane Addams built."

T antalizing taste: 

     "She told her friend... about her plan to build a settlement house in Chicago. It was 'as if a racehorse had burst out of the gate, free at last to pour every ounce of energy into running.'

      There was a glittery side to Chicago, with its mansions, fancy shops, and sparkling lakefront. But there was a gritty side, too. One million people lived in Chicago in 1889. Most were immigrants - people who came from other countries. They came for a better life... Many needed help."     

and something more: Tanya Lee Stone's Author's Note includes fascinating additional information about Jane Addams: "During World War I, she co-founded the Woman's Peace Party... she traveled the world and spoke out against war. Her opinions were not always popular. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) kept a file on her, and she was called 'the most dangerous woman in America.' But none of that stopped her. In 1931, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize." 

Luna & Me

The True Story of a Girl
Who Lived in a Tree
to Save a Forest

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Christy Ottaviano Books 
(Henry Holt and Co.)

(pub.5.12.2015)  40 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and Illustrator: Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

C haracter: Julia Butterfly Hill

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "Once there was a redwood tree - one of the world's largest and tallest trees, and one of the oldest. And once, born nearly a thousand years after the tree first took root, there was a girl named Julia, who was called Butterfly.

     One day, exploring her beloved forest, Butterfly wandered into a grove of ancient trees. One tree had broken branches and a big blue X on the side. It was going to be cut down. Butterfly climbed up into the tree. Don't trees have a right to just be? she thought. And, she also thought, a tree wouldn't be cut down if it had a person living in it. A person who would go on to live in that tree for two years.

     Inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill's courageous fight to save an ancient redwood..."

T antalizing taste:   
   
      "When she reached a comfortable perch, Butterfly introduced herself.
       'I am Butterfly. and YOU, Luna, are a ladder to the moon.'
       Luna smiled inside.
       Welcome, little Butterfly. You are brave to have ventured up so high!
       Butterfly marveled at Luna's view of the world.
       She spied a river twisting this way and that past Luna's countless brothers and sisters and cousins.
       But then she looked closer.
       Butterfly realized what the blue X meant on Luna's trunk.
       The tree would soon be chopped down and harvested."
 
and something more:  Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw explained in her Author's Note in Luna & Me that in "December 1999, the Pacific Lumber Company and Julia Butterfly Hill signed an agreement to protect Luna and the surrounding grove. Sanctuary Forest, a nonprofit organization who primary focus is land and water restoration and conservation, became entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the Luna preserve in perpetuity. On December 18, 1999, after 738 days, Julia climbed down from Luna's arms. Since then, she has spent more than fifteen years as an inspirational speaker, teaching people about the environment and how to help preserve the earth for future generations."

    I've always had a soft spot for redwoods and I was very lucky to live for many years in a house with an enormous redwood towering outside my window. I thought it was quite wonderful to learn that Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw "spent an enchanting day at the base of Luna, listening to many stories from Luna's caretaker, Stuart Moskowitz." Jenny and her family "camped in the redwoods - breathing deeply, lying on the forest floor, painting, and playing with banana slugs. Luna and the Redwood Forest fueled [her] illustrations with detail and magic."  May everyone have a chance to be by a redwood!

Fab Four Friends

The Boys Who Became
the BEATLES

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Christy Ottaviano Books 
(Henry Holt & Co.)

(pub.8.18.2015)  40 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Susanna Reich

           and Illustrator: Adam Gustavson

    

C haracters: The Beatles

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "In 1957 in Liverpool, England, a kid named John Lennon and his band played music at a local church fair. In the audience was Paul McCartney, who liked what he heard and soon joined the group. Pal's friend George Harrison kept showing up at rehearsals until the older boys finally let him in. Eventually they found the perfect drummer - Ringo Starr - and the perfect name - the Beatles.

     This is the story of how four ordinary boys, growing up amid the rubble of postwar England, found music to be a powerful, even life-saving, force. This is the story of the four fabulous friends who became the bestselling band in history."

T antalizing taste:   
   
      "John attacked the guitar, strumming a fast as he could. He didn't give a fig about wrong notes. With some of his mates, he organized a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, pounding out souped-up folk songs and some rock 'n' roll. They had no idea how to play, but they loved making noise - lots of noise! Rehearsing in Mum's bathroom, the sounds bounced off the tiles. Bam, BOOM, bam, BOOM!"

and something more:  Susanna Reich explained in her Author's Note in Fab Four Friends that with so much material available about the Beatles she had to "make difficult choices about which fascinating facts and witty quotes to include. For example, did you know that when the Beatles were boys, milk was still delivered by horse-drawn cart and only the McCartneys had a telephone?... That Ringo liked being in the hospital because he got to have butter on his bread. 'A dollop of butter was big news in those days.'"  

        And the book's Glossary defines some of the intriguing terms from the story, such as "Skiffle. A form of folk music with jazz, blues, and country influences that uses homemade instruments such as washboard and thimble, tea-chest bass, and cigar-box fiddle, along with acoustic guitar or banjo." 

        I particularly like this quote from Ringo Starr as it applies to all of us who are passionate about our creative endeavors: "I believe that you actually feel the love in the craft, in the art, from the four individuals who were there."

Papa Is a Poet

A Story About Robert Frost


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Christy Ottaviano Books (Macmillan)

(pub.10.15.2013)  40 pages 

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Natalie S. Bober

           and Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon

    

C haracter:  Robert Frost - poet 

O verview from the back cover: 

      "When Robert Frost was a child, his family thought he would grow up to be a baseball player. Instead, he became a poet. His life on a farm in New Hampshire inspired him to write 'poetry that talked,' and today he is famous for his vivid descriptions of the rural life he loved so much.
      There was a time, though, when Frost had to struggle to get his poetry published. Told from the point of view of Lesley, Robert Frost's oldest daughter, this is the story of how a lover of language found his voice."

T antalizing taste: 

      "Papa thought that any book worth reading twice was worth owning. So instead of buying desserts, we bought books.
     Papa told us to reread stories we remembered with pleasure. He wanted us to enjoy books so much that we would be lonely without them. And he told us to memorize poems in order to know them by heart...
     Papa did things his way. He decided to milk his cow at midnight so he could stay awake and read Shakespeare and write poems in the hush of a sleeping household."

and something more: What a wonderful idea for a book about Robert Frost -- to focus on Frost's choice to pursue a life as a poet, and thereby take a road "less traveled by...that has made all the difference."
      I was curious as to why the author, Natalie S. Bober, chose to write Papa Is A Poet from the first person perspective of Frost's oldest daughter, Lesley. The Author's Note explains that "Lesley and her father had a close relationship and very early on he taught her to read and write. In 1905, when she was not quite six years old, he encouraged her to keep a journal of her 'travels and adventures' around and near the farm. She kept the journal until she was ten. Much of what Lesley says in this story has been adapted from that journal and from [Bober's] biography, A Restless Spirit: The Story of Robert Frost, written some years ago for young adult readers."
     The book includes a lovely Robert Frost quotation: "A poem is a momentary stay against confusion... a voyage in discovery [that] begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same for love."

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors?

The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell

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Christy Ottaviano Books
(Henry Holt and Company)
(pub. 2.19.2013) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Tanya Lee Stone

     and Illustrator:  Marjorie Priceman

C haracter: Elizabeth Blackwell

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "In the 1830s, when a brave and curious girl named Elizabeth Blackwell was growing up, women were supposed to be wives and mothers. Career options were few. There were certainly no female doctors. But Elizabeth refused to accept these common beliefs and would not take no for an answer.
       This inspiring story of the first female doctor in America shows how one strong-willed woman opened the doors for all the female doctors who followed."

T antalizing taste: 

    "The teachers had let the students vote on whether or not to allow Elizabeth to come. And the boys, figuring the school would never really accept a girl, said yes. They planned to turn the whole thing into a big joke.
     But the joke was on them!"

                       

and something more: As always, I'm fascinated by the Author's Note in picture book biographies. In Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors, Tanya Lee Stone explains that after Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from medical school "with the highest grades in the whole class" in 1849,  "no one would hire her to work as a doctor."  Thank goodness Elizabeth Blackwell "refused to give up. She was as stubborn as a mule. Quite rightly!" I didn't realize that her sister also became a doctor and together they started The New York Infirmary for Women and Children - "the first hospital run by women, for women."  Thanks to Tanya Lee Stone for sharing this true tale of perseverance.