Carter Reads the Newspaper

Peachtree Publishers
 (pub. 2.1.2019) 
  36 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  

Deborah Hopkinson
 and illustrator: Don Tate
 
C haracter: Carter G. Woodson

O verview from the jacket flap: 
     "Each February we celebrate Black History Month. It's a time to honor heroes like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. But there's one hero we sometimes forget.

      Carter G. Woodson didn't help people escape from slavery, start a bus strike, or lead a movement of millions. Yet without Woodson, the Father of Black History, we might not have Black History Month.

     Carter never wrote much about his own personal history. But we know that he listened and learned from those around him. Although his father couldn't read, he believed in being an informed citizen. So Carter read the newspaper to him, and later to men in the West Virginia coal mines, where he toiled when just a teen.

     And so the seeds of Carter's own life work began to grow. He went on to become the only child of enslaved parents to earn a PhD in history. In 1926, Carter established Negro History Week, now known as Black History Month.

     Carter G. Woodson dedicated his life to finding, preserving, and teaching the whole truth about American history. It was, he believed, the only way to build a real democracy."
   

T antalizing taste: 

      "At Harvard, so the story goes, one of Carter's professors said that Black people had no history.

     Carter remembered his father's pride, his mother's courage, and Oliver's determination to learn. He remembered reading the newspaper.

     Carter spoke up. 'No people lacked a history,' he said. The professor challenged Carter to prove him wrong.

     For the rest of his life, Carter did just that."

And something more: At the back of Carter Reads the Newspaper, Deborah Hopkinson explains in her Author's Note: "Dr. Carter G. Woodson... conducted groundbreaking research, and built a movement to honor and recognize African-American contributions to history that is still alive and vibrant. The organization that he founded in 1915 thrives today as ASALH, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. In 1976, his home and office headquarters in Washington, D.C., was designated a National Historic Landmark."

Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen

Balzer + Bray
(HarperCollins Publishers)

(pub. 1.23.2018)
 40 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Deborah Hopkinson
    and illustrator: Qin Leng

C haracter: Jane Austen

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers.
     But before that, she was just an ordinary girl.
     In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy; if you had met her back then, you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you. Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said and locked those observations away for safekeeping.
     Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father's massive library, and before long she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way ... and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel.
     Deborah Hopkinson and Qin Leng have collaborated on a gorgeous tribute to an independent thinker who turned ordinary life into extraordinary stories and created a body of work that has delighted and inspired readers for generations."

T antalizing taste: 
       
"Now, two hundred years later,
I wonder if Jane would be surprised to learn
that her books are still read and loved
by people all over the world?
Maybe.
Then again, maybe not.

For perhaps there was a moment
when young Jane stood alone in
her father's grand library,
with the works of great men all around her,
and said to herself, 'I can do this.
I can do even better.
I will write about the ordinary world
in the most extraordinary way.'

That, dear reader, is exactly what she did."

and something more: The back flap says that "Deborah Hopkinson first discovered Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in sixth grade and continues to reread it once a year (at least). Her favorite Austen film scene is the moment when the late and beloved actor Alan Rickman tosses coins into the air in Sense and Sensibility. When not reading or watching Austen (and longing to visit England), Deborah writes picture books, middle grade novels and nonfiction from her home near Portland, Oregon."  
      And she's also been on the faculty of wonderful narrative nonfiction workshop retreats through Highlights Foundation/Boyds Mills Press in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.  And I was lucky enough to attend just such a writing retreat!