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."

Away With Words

The Daring Story
of Isabella Bird

Peachtree Publishers
(pub. 3.1.2019) 
36 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lori Mortensen
 and illustrator: Kristy Caldwell 
 
C haracter: Isabella Bird

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "Isabella Bird ... had to explore.
     That was easier said than done in nineteenth-century England.  But somehow Isabella persisted, and with each journey, she breathed in new ways to see and describe everything around her.
     Question by question, word by word, Isabella bloomed.
     First, out in the English countryside.
     Then, off to America and Canada.
     And eventually, around the world, to Africa, Asia, Australia, and more.
     Always more - more places, more questions, more words - and all those experiences became books, in which she described the land she traveled, the people she met, and the dangers she experienced, to a fascinated audience who could only dream of such travels and adventures.
     And finally, Isabella returned home to England, where she became the first female member of the Royal Geographic Society an was presented to Queen Victoria.
     But to wild-vine Isabella, the world was home."
    

T antalizing taste:  

     "Each voyage tested her mettle. Each place revealed something new.
     In the Sandwich Islands, Isabella traded her skirt for bloomerlike full Turkish trousers and clambered up Kilauea, a towering, lava-spewing volcano. Up until then, she'd always worn a skirt and ridden sidesaddle - the ladylike way to ride. But concessions had to be made to climb a volcano."

And something more: The Author's Note in AWAY WITH WORDS explained that "Isabella Bird grew up during the Victorian Age. Although her parents taught her French, literature, history, art, scriptures, Latin, and botany at home, society offered little opportunity for her or any other women of the era. The longer Isabella remained at home, the more depressed she became and the worse her symptoms grew. Once she sailed away from England, her spirit soared."