A child-friendly look at a boundary-defying businesswoman.
Forshee chronicles the life of pioneering retail leader Margaret Getchell LaForge in this biography for middle-grade readers.
In the 19th century, Margaret Getchell LaForge rose from modest beginnings to become the first female executive in the retail industry. Overcoming challenges at a young age, Margaret endured her father’s abandonment of the family, the death of her brother in infancy, and the near-total loss of vision in one eye. But, as the author notes, Margaret’s community of Nantucket harbored a culture of female empowerment. Shaped by formative experiences characterized by female autonomy, Margaret became a teacher at the age of 16. When her visual impairment resulted in the replacement of her right eye with a glass prosthetic, she sought employment from her cousin R.H. Macy who owned a soon-to-be-famous store in New York. While her attention to detail and skill with numbers enabled her rapid advancement from cash clerk to head bookkeeper, Margaret had bigger dreams. Known to say, “Be everywhere. Do everything. And never fail to astonish the customer,” Margaret offered innovative ideas that have come to shape modern retail, including the diverse selection of goods that characterizes the department store model, wildly creative marketing, and the placing of desired merchandise in the backs of stores. Margaret was even the genesis of the red star logo with which Macy’s is synonymous. Rewarded with a promotion to superintendent and placed in charge of all 200 employees within the store, Margaret became the first woman in America to hold such a leadership role in a retail setting. In this fascinating and thoughtfully written account, the author draws upon source material from the great-great-granddaughter of Margaret Getchell LaForge, lending intimacy to her presentation of this trailblazing leader’s life. Succinct and easy to read, this narrative of resilience is well suited to late-childhood and early-adolescent readers, and it inspires with a real-life example of determination and success. This sweet and uplifting work will make a solid addition to school libraries and family storytimes.
A child-friendly look at a boundary-defying businesswoman.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Emerald Books/Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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