The Power of Her Pen

The Groundbreaking Story
of the Journalist
Ethel L. Payne

Paula Wiseman Books
(Simon & Schuster)
(pub. 1.14.2020) 
48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lesa Cline-Ransome
 and illustrator:  John Parra

 
C haracter: Ethel L. Payne

O verview: 
     "Ethel Payne always had an ear for stories. Seeking truth, justice, and equality, Ethel followed stories from her school newspaper in Chicago to Japan during World War II. It even led her to the White House briefing room, where she broke barriers as the only black female journalist. Ethel wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions of presidents, elected officials, or anyone else in charge, earning her the title, 'First Lady of the Black Press.'

         Fearless and determined, Ethel Payne shined a light on the darkest moments in history, and her ear for stories sought answers to the questions that mattered most in the fight for Civil Rights."

T antalizing taste: 
     "On Saturdays, once the house was spotless, Bessie took Ethel and her five siblings to the white side of town where there were libraries with shelves stacked tall with books. There, Ethel flipped through pages and memorized  passages to recite to anyone who would listen...
      Ethel walked a mile to school each day. The neighborhood residents  screamed and yelled and threw rocks at a black girl who dared to go to school  with whites. 'Sometimes I stood my ground, sometimes I got a bloody nose from fighting. But that was the way it was,' Ethel recalled later."
    
And something more: Ethel Payne said that she had a “box seat to history.” Due to her prominence in the black press, she was invited by President Lyndon Johnson to visit the White House when he signed both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  In 1988 the District of Columbia Women’s Hall of Fame inducted Payne into their ranks. She also won awards from the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs and the National Association for Black Journalists.

Before She Was Harriet

Holiday House Publishing

(pub. 11.7.2017)
32 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lesa Cline-Ransome
      and illustrator:  
                James E. Ransome

C haracter: Harriet Tubman

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "Moses,
      General Tubman,
      Minty,
      Araminta- 
the woman we know today as Harriet Tubman went by many names. Each represented one of her many roles as a spy, as a liberator, as a suffragist, and more.
     A powerful poem and exquisite watercolor paintings pay tribute to a true American hero.

T antalizing taste: 
       
"Before she was an old woman 
she was a suffragist
a voice for women 
who had none
in marriages
in courts
in voting booths
before her voice became
soft and raspy
it was loud
and angry 
rising above injustice

 

and something more: I was intrigued by the way this powerful and eloquent story was told -- a loop beginning as an older woman and progressing in reverse order through her life back to a woman "who dreamed/ of living long enough/ to one day/ be old/stiff and achy/tired and worn and wrinkled/ and free".  And such a lovely dedication by James E. Ransome, the illustrator: "To black women who have carried the weight of family and work with grace and dignity."

Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson

Taking the Stage as the First
Black-and-White Jazz Band
in History

This post joins other
kidlit bloggers on the
Nonfiction Monday Roundup

and also joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Holiday House
(pub. 1.1.2014) 32 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Lesa Cline-Ransome
           and Illustrator: James E. Ransome

    

C haracters:  Benny Goodman - clarinet player  
                   Teddy Wilson - piano player

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "Brought together by the love of jazz, Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman broke the color barrier in entertainment when they formed the Benny Goodman Trio, with Gene Krupa. This lush and lyrical picture book tells the story of how two musical prodigies, one a young boy who studied music at Tukegee College in Alabama, the other the son of struggling Russian Jewish immigrants from the West Side of Chicago, came together through music and helped create the style known as swing."

T antalizing taste: 

"Only late at night
In jam sessions
In recording sessions
In Harlem
Offstage, backstage
On vinyl
Were black and white together
When Benny's music swung
with the best
Fast fingering
Drums thumping
Trumpets trumping
It wasn't soft
It wasn't black
It wasn't sweet
It wasn't white
It was swing

and something more:  A wonderful interview of Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome, the wife and husband author and illustrator team of Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson, is featured on the website of the publisher, Holiday House. I was particularly moved by these answers to these questions: "What makes this book special to you? What important message do you feel it brings to young readers?"

Lesa: "I think this book celebrates the passion of two artists while demonstrating that race and background are secondary to the common goals that bind us."

James: "Segregation is such a dark period in American history. I think sometimes it is hard for those who have not grown up in that period to understand that in public, while everything was segregated, people have always been integrated when it comes to playing music." 

Words Set Me Free

The Story of Young Frederick Douglass

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Jean Little Library

and joins It's Monday! What are you reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts

Simon & Schuster - Paula Wiseman Books

(pub. 1.3.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Lesa Cline-Ransome

     and Illustrator:  James Ransome

C haracter: Frederick Douglass

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Born to a slave mother and a father he never knew, Frederick Bailey had few prospects as a six-year-old boy in Maryland in the 1820s. The turn of his fate was the kindness of Missus Auld, the wife of his master. She took the time and care to teach young Frederick first his letters and then how to read them. Opening doors he could not have even imagined, words set young Frederick free.

       What life held for Frederick was to change the world - Frederick changed his name to Frederick Douglass and became one of the first leaders of the antislavery movement. Based on Frederick Douglass' own Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, this is the inspiring story of the power of the individual."

        

T antalizing taste: 

   "I may not have known how to read, but I knew that if learning made me no longer want to be a slave, then I would secure my freedom one letter at a time...

    With a brick and a lump of chalk was first how I practiced my letters. Scratched them all along the bricked streets and wooden fences of Baltimore. P looked like a sail on one of the ships, L was a leg with a big foot. Two sticks crossed in the middle, that was X."

          

and something more: Lesa Cline-Ransome includes a wonderful tribute to libraries in the dedication of this book: "Thanks to all of the libraries - Malden Public Library, New York Public Library, Adriance Memorial Library, and Starr Library - that have opened my world to words and books and freedom."

     And, on Lesa Cline-Ransome's website, she writes about her mother and early influential trips to the library: "I consider myself very lucky to have grown up with a mother who loved to read. Each week my mom would take me with her to our local library so that she could stock up on books. As I grew older I would venture off into the children’s section and gather up on my own collection to check out. Through my mother I realized that reading could become a wonderful escape and writing even more so."

     I too was very fortunate to have a mother who often took me to the library and shared her love of reading with me. Here's to libraries and librarians and people in our lives who share with us their love of books and reading!