Factually accurate and accessibly told.
A grandmother remembers when Susanna Madora Salter was elected the first female mayor in the United States.
In 1934, Dora asks her grandson, Ed, to help her bake a cake for her birthday. Though proud to help, Ed worries what his friends will say, since “only girls bake.” In response, Dora tells Ed about a girl named Susanna living in Argonia, Kansas, when only men could vote and make laws. Then in 1887, Kansas becomes the first state to enact a law allowing women to vote and run for office in their city elections. When several men warn Susanna that “women should stay out of politics” as she and other women prepare to endorse a candidate for Argonia’s local election, she ignores the bullies. Next, townsmen create a prank ballot listing Susanna as a candidate for mayor, and she surprises them by running and winning by a landslide. When Dora finishes her story and cake, she has a surprise for Ed. As Dora tells Ed this true story of her election as first female mayor in the country, she shares historical information about women’s limited role in politics along with personal details of her own experience, providing an accessible introduction to a landmark event. Simple, colorful illustrations follow Susanna’s political journey in 1887 and her later role as cake-baking grandmother in 1934. All characters present White.
Factually accurate and accessibly told. (author's note, research note) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-5313-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A fascinating introduction to one of the greatest hoaxes of all time, deftly pitched to elementary-age children.
Long before there was Photoshop, in the days when photography was an infant technology, a teenager produced photographs that convinced the world fairies are real.
When 9-year-old Frances Griffiths told her disbelieving parents she saw fairies by the waterfall behind their country house in England, Frances’ 16-year-old cousin, Elsie Wright, wanted to prove Frances’ story. She painted paper fairies and photographed them. Then she took photos showing the girls interacting with the dainty winged creatures in the valley behind Elsie’s house. The girls never meant to fool the world, but the photographs fell into the hands of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Like Frances, Conan Doyle believed in fairies, and in 1920 he published the photographs in the widely read Strand magazine and wrote that he believed they were conclusive proof of the existence of fairies. After experts declared the pictures genuine and Conan Doyle’s article appeared, an innocent prank turned into a hoax that lasted until Frances and Elsie finally revealed their secret over 60 years later. Nobleman introduces readers to this remarkable story in a compact, engaging narrative that’s respectful to its young audience. Complementing Wheeler’s delicate, detailed illustrations of the all-white human cast and its middle-class English milieu are reproductions of the famed photographs.
A fascinating introduction to one of the greatest hoaxes of all time, deftly pitched to elementary-age children. (author’s note, not seen) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-69948-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs.
Die-cut flaps offer glimpses inside eight 20th-century fliers, from Louis Bleriot’s 1909 Type XI to the space shuttle.
Biesty’s exactingly detailed painted portraits are the stars of the show—each presenting a type of passenger liner or freight hauler (most of them big and bulky) poised in flight, viewed from slightly above or below. Each also features four or so inconspicuous flaps that lift to reveal neatly drawn seats and storage spaces, internal bracing, fuel tanks, toilets, and other points of interest. Along with very brief accounts of each craft’s career, Graham adds surrounding captions that point out ailerons and cockpits, engines, exhaust ducts, and other physical features. Small human figures, most but not all light-skinned, impart a sense of scale. Where space permits, pertinent spot images of related items of interest—the Wrights’ Flyer, Harriet Quimby, a zeppelin, or other side subject—are tucked in. Only two aircraft covered, the U.S. Boeing 747 and the Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter, are still in common use, so this album may appeal more to fans of aviation’s past than its present or future.
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0281-6
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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