Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: “Smart and snappy…as inspiring as it is delightful.” — Booklist (starred review)
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: “Concisely outlines Clinton’s journey from activist to First Lad of Arkansas and on to Washington, D.C….Pham’s (the Freckleface Strawberry series) watercolors are steeped in period detail.” — Publishers Weekly
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: “Both for fun and education…go-girl power and a good read.” — Kirkus Reviews
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: “[An] honest and open portrayal” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: “The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards … This book has fighting spirit in spades-you go, Clara!” — Booklist (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: “Readers are treated to solid information with a buoyant message about standing up for what is right. Sweet has created an outstanding backdrop for Markel’s text with a vibrant collage of watercolor, gouache, blank dress-pattern paper, bookkeeping pages, stitches, and fabric pieces.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: “Sweet incorporates images of assorted fabrics and stitch patterns into her tender illustrations, brightening the lives of workers whose reality was bleak.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: “In her simple but powerful text Markel shows how multiple arrests, serious physical attacks, and endless misogyny failed to deter this remarkable woman as she set off on her lifelong path as a union activist.” — The Horn Book
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: “Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara’s courageous advocacy.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “An empowering introduction that demands parallel examination of Carrington’s own work.” — Kirkus Reviews
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “Spectral fairies, soaring women, an infant in a luminous crescent-moon cradle, a human-faced hyena—these are a few of the wondrous images filling the pages of this colorful picture-book biography of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington.” — Booklist (starred review)
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “A reminder that rebellion comes in different forms.” — School Library Journal
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “A striking picture book biography.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “A glorious look at a woman artist who did exactly what she wanted to do at a time when few were able to do so.” — The Horn Book
PRAISE FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD: “Markel’s telling—evocative and poetic—feels enchanted… [her] gorgeous description of Carrington’s paintings is the perfect summation of the extraordinariness found in all females.” — New York Times Book Review
2024-04-20
This picture-book biography focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt’s work for social justice.
From volunteering with “poor immigrants” as a young woman to chairing the UN Human Rights Commission, Roosevelt works to overcome her shyness and stand up for people on the margins. Markel’s swift survey lays out a dizzyingly impressive list of accomplishments: supporting labor reform in the 1920s; advancing the rights of women, poor people, and African Americans in the ’30s; fighting racism against Japanese Americans and Black people during World War II; and championing human rights worldwide in the postwar era. Roosevelt is consistently presented as a person who understands the right thing to do and then does it despite internal anxiety and external detractors. Largely missing, however, is the mental work Roosevelt needed to do to reach her convictions, aside from a brief mention of an adult awakening to white supremacy. Also missing is significant context. Readers must squint at the small type in the backmatter to learn that Japanese Americans were imprisoned in camps during the war despite Roosevelt’s advocacy for their rights. If the treatment is necessarily abbreviated, however, Roosevelt nevertheless emerges as a role model for allyship. Working in a clean, graphic-arts style, Mesa contributes depictions of Roosevelt at work that complement but do not significantly expand on the text.
A serviceable introduction to an influential first lady. (timeline, bibliography, further info) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)