Have You Heard About Lady Bird?: Poems About Our First Ladies

by Marilyn Singer, Nancy Carpenter (Illustrator)

Overview

The role of First Lady has been defined differently by each woman who's held it, but all of them left an impact on our nation as partner of the commander in chief. Incisive poetry by Marilyn Singer and energetic art by Nancy Carpenter provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of women-from Martha Washington to Eleanor Roosevelt to Lady Bird Johnson-who variously embraced the position and shied away from it, craved the spotlight and fiercely guarded their privacy, took controversial stands and championed for the status quo. Detailed back matter includes short biographies, quotations, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484726600
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/16/2018
Pages:	56
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Marilyn Singer is the author of more than one hundred books for children and young adults, including Have You Heard About Lady Bird?: Poems About Our First Ladies; Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems About Our Presidents; Feel the Beat!: Dance Poems that Zing from Salsa to Swing; Mirror Mirror; Echo Echo; and Monster Museum. She lives with her husband and a variety of creatures in Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, Connecticut. Visit her at www.marilynsinger.net.

Nancy Carpenter is the illustrator of more than sixty books for children, including Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan, an ALA Notable Children's Book and CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book; Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson, an ALA Notable Children's Book and SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner; and Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore, a Parents' Choice Gold Medal Award winner. Her unique multimedia approach to illustration has garnered numerous honors, including two Christopher Awards and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, daughter, son, and dog, Banjo. You can visit Nancy online at www.nancycarpenter.website.

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS— 2014 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS— 2015 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS— 2015 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

"[I]mpressive. . . . [A] wonderful teaching tool."— School Library Journal, starred review
PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

"[Singer] infuses the familiar with new meaning."— Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

"Singer shows mastery of poetic forms."— Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE?: POEMS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

"A visually explosive mixture of fact and verse, this may not be the first presidential poetry collection for kids out there, but by gum it's the best."— Elizabeth Bird, A Fuse #8 Production

From the Publisher

2018-09-02

"We know Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, / but what about those other madams"?

For each first lady from Martha Washington ("Raised to be a planter's wife, / taught how one behaves / as mistress of the household / and the household slaves") to immigrant Melania Trump, Singer offers a thumbnail character study in verse that's paired to an ink-and-wash figure by Carpenter. If there is any common theme, it's mortality: Martha Jefferson, who died 19 years before her husband's election, is represented by a framed silhouette over a silent pianoforte; Peggy Taylor lies prostrate before a tombstone; a veiled Jackie Kennedy looks out from an antique TV screen. Singer likewise often includes mention of lost husbands or children among references to favored causes and personal accomplishments. On the other hand, Mary Todd Lincoln, generously summed up as "an unlucky woman—kindly and cursed," poses regally as her brown-skinned dressmaker (unnamed in the poem but identified in the endnotes) cuts up an American flag to make a gown while Abe stands nearby, gaping comically at a sheaf of bills. Brief profiles at the end add some detail but mostly just recap the poems' content, and a pictorial timeline on the rear endpapers would serve as an index if the jacket flap didn't cover a good portion of it.

Some issues with design and tone but a mostly worthy appreciation of the women who stood and stand (if, sometimes, only figuratively) next to the presidents. (Poetry/collective biography. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews