World Cycling Champion
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Candlewick Press
(pub. 9.12.2023)
48 pages
Ages 7-10
Author: Charles R Smith Jr.
and Illustrator: Leo Espinosa
Character: Marshall "Major" Taylor
Overview:
" One hundred years ago, one of the most popular spectator sports was bicycle racing, and the man to beat was Marshall 'Major' Taylor, who set records in his teens and won his first world championship by age twenty.
The first African American world champion in cycling and the second Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport, Major Taylor faced down challenge after challenge, not least the grueling Six-Day Race, a test of speed, strength, and endurance."
Tantalizing taste:
"When the other racers saw
the color of your face,
they taunted you
and threatened you
to drive you from the race.
But you pedaled on, Major,
and you didn't quit,
and when the rain came
only you finished it.
So keep riding, Major,
keep riding, don't quit.
Now, just like then,
keep pedaling, finish it."
And something more: Charles R Smith Jr. , in the Author's Note explains that "As a pro, Major won races and set countless records along the way. Many of the white racers tried to hurt him on the track due to his skin color, but Marshall adopted racing tactics to avoid harm and emerge victorious. He would stay at the back until the last lap, then put on a quick burst of speed to sprint ahead for the victory. This racing style made him a fan favorite."
The Genius of Ursula Nordstrom
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Anne Schwartz Books
(Random House Kids)
(pub. 9.19.2023)
48 pages
4 - 8 years
Author: Beth Kephart
Illustrator: Chloe Bristol
Character: Ursula Nordstrom
Overview:
" Ursula Nordstrom was a grown-up who never forgot what it was to be a child. The girl who'd always loved to read would grow up to work in the Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper & Brothers Publishers. Soon she was editing books by Margaret Wise Brown and E. B. White, discovering new talent like John Steptoe and Maurice Sendak, and reinventing what a book for children should be.
'Children want to be seen,' she'd tell her writers. 'Not good enough for you,' she'd scribble in the margins of their manuscripts, asking them to revise. Her favorite books of all? 'Good books for bad children,' she'd say. And those books went on to win every award imaginable, including the Caldecott and Newbery Medals and the National Book Award."
Tantalizing taste:
"Ursula published what she pleased.
She was curious.
She was honest.
She knew what to ask her writer and artists
and how best to listen -
how to stare out through her bright blue eyes
and her wide spectacles
and encourage their most fabulous stories.
'Children want to feel seen,' she said,
in a voice some called musical
and some called gravelly.
'Children deserve our best.'"
And something more: Beth Kephart, in the Author's Note writes that Maurice Sendak said, "I loved her on first meeting. My happiest memories, in fact, are of my earliest career, when Ursula was my confidante and best friend."
Beth Kephart shares about her inspiration for writing this story: "I fell in love with Nordstrom several years ago, when teaching children's literature at the University of Pennsylvania...[and when she learned that Ursula proudly defended] E. B. White's right to write about a talking mouse named Stuart Little. My kind of editor ... I have followed her through the channels of my own imagination - puzzling through her inconsistencies, weighing the mythologies, and doing my utmost best to honor her, with the help of my own perfection-nudging editor, Anne Schwartz."
Ernestine's Gift for
President Roosevelt
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Millbrook Press
(Lerner Publishing)
(pub. 9.5.2023)
32 pages
Ages 5-9
Author: Lupe Ruiz-Flores
Illustrator: Anna López Real
Character: Ernestine Guerrero
Overview:
" During the Great Depression, times were tough for families across the United States. In San Antonio, Texas, Ernestine Guerrero and her family relied on wooden crates of free food from the government.
The Mexican American teen was so grateful for the government food aid they received that she wanted to personally thank President Roosevelt. But how? After seeing the plans for a very difficult woodworking project, she decided she would make it herself and send it to the president. Piece by piece, that's exactly what she did. And the clock case she built remains on display in the Roosevelt Presidential Library to this day.
With stunning illustrations from Anna López Real, this picture book tells the inspiring true story of a girl who proved that if you look closely, treasure can be found in unexpected places."
Tantalizing taste:
"One day, her uncle
gave her a woodworking pattern for a clock case
called the Chimes of Normandy.
Ernestine studied it closely
and discovered the pattern required 156 pieces of wood.
Each piece had to fit together
to make the 40-inch-high clock case.
It seemed like an impossible task,
and that's how she knew it was the right way to thank the president."
And something more: Lupe Ruiz-Flores, in the Author's Note explains that "the sculpture and Ernestine's letter to the president are part of an exhibit at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in upstate New York. Unfortunately, the letter from the president thanking Ernestine for the gift was destroyed in a house fire... Ernestine never knew that she had become part of history when her two-year labor of love created from discarded wooden crates became a permanent display in the FDR museum. Her daughters have visited the dispay in New York and are extremely proud that their mother's memory is being kept alive."
