131. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

listened on Libby, borrowed from the library
narrated by Caroline Lee 
Unabridged audio (10:17)
2020
370 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 9/29/20
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 3284 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1840s Britain, on ship from Britain to Tasmania, and Tasmania

First line/s: "By the time the rains came, Mathinna had been hiding in the bush for nearly two days."

What I posted on Goodreads:  4.5 A wonderful, though bleak, historical fiction about three women in the 1840s British penal colony which is now Tasmania in Australia. 

(I felt that the nondisclosure of ending for one of the major characters was a bit disconcerting, thus the erasure of half a point from a full-fledged five.)

Goodreads synopsis:  The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel that captures the hardship, oppression, opportunity and hope of a trio of women’s lives in nineteenth-century Australia.
          Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.
          During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel -- a skilled midwife and herbalist – is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.
          Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
          In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom.           Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

47. From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

listened to audio on Libby through Bosler Library
narrated by Bahni Turpin
Unabridged audio (6:10)
2020 Katherine Tegen Books
304 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished 3/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.35 - 554 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Boston/Somerville/Cambridge, Massachusetts

First line/s:  "The day I turned twelve, I was certain it'd be my favorite birthday yet, but then I got the letter."

My comments:   Ms. Marks has written a book with a wonderful 12-year-old voice, real and believable, with faults and fears, ambitions and beliefs.  Becoming acquainted with her imprisoned father for the first time and following clues to help the Innocence Project get him out of jail was the biggest premise of the book.  She also loved to bake, creating a new recipe for Fruit Loop cupcakes as she interned in a local bakery for the summer.  The setting of Boston/Somerville/Cambridge with an emphasis on Davis Square was detailed and fun for this suburban Boston native.  She wasn't perfect, and that made her all the more real.  I didn't like that the mother had completely given up the father as a murderer, even though he protested he'd never done anything wrong.  Then she blocked her daughter from any access to him.  This was harsh and a bit unbelievable.  Put the book down a a point for me.  However, what a great story for kids!  I wasn't super crazy about the narrator, although her reading ability was right on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her twelfth birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime?
          A crime he says he never committed.
          Could Marcus really be innocent? Zoe is determined to uncover the truth. Even if it means hiding his letters and her investigation from the rest of her family. Everyone else thinks Zoe’s worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship and proving to her parents that she’s worthy of auditioning for Food Network’s Kids Bake Challenge.
          But with bakery confections on one part of her mind, and Marcus’s conviction weighing heavily on the other, this is one recipe Zoe doesn’t know how to balance. The only thing she knows to be true: Everyone lies.

28. Conviction by Julia Dahl

#3 Rebekah Roberts, NYC investigative reporter
Listened to Audio on Audible
narrated by Andi Arndt
Unabridged audio (8:17)
2017 Minotaur Books
312 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 2/10/20
Goodreads rating:  3.83 - 812 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Brooklyn with lots of flashing back to the late 90s

First line/s:  "The little boy walked to the storefront church alone, with blood on his hands and face."

My comments:  Another story told though descriptions of different times related to the major incident of the story.  The summer of 1992 in Brooklyn, New York, and the present, what took place from different points of view - and how Rebekah is following up on all the information she is able to compile. I was really uncomfortable whenever it flipped back to 1992 because I felt so horribly sad the the 16-year old who was falsely convicted and then imprisoned for over twenty years.  And so, so so pissed a the cops!  It almost got to the point I didn't finish the book because I was so darned uncomfortable and pissed at the whole situation.  And Rebekahs's mother...geez!  Poor Rebekah, working so hard in the first two books to find and figure out her mother and now we discover one of the most unlikable people ever.  I've seen nothing about a book number four, and it's been a few years, so I wonder if one will be coming at all....

Goodreads synopsis:  New York City 1992: a year after riots exploded between black and Jewish neighbors in Brooklyn, a black family is brutally murdered in their Crown Heights home. A teenager is quickly convicted, and the justice system moves on.
          Twenty-two years later, journalist Rebekah Roberts gets a letter: I didn't do it. Frustrated with her work at the city’s sleaziest tabloid, Rebekah starts to dig. But witnesses are missing, memories faded, and almost no one wants to talk about that grim, violent time in New York City—not even Saul Katz, a former NYPD cop and her source in Brooklyn’s insular Hasidic community.
          So she goes it alone. And as she gets closer to the truth of that night, Rebekah finds herself in the path of a killer with two decades of secrets to protect.
          From the author of the Edgar-nominated Invisible City comes another timely thriller that illuminates society’s darkest corners. Told in part through the eyes of a jittery eyewitness and the massacre’s sole survivor, Julia Dahl's Conviction examines the power—and cost—of community, loyalty, and denial.

25. Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

listened to the eAudio borrowed from Bosler
narrated by Susan Bennett
Unabridged audio (13:19)
2020 St. Martin's Press
400 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction/Present time Back & Forth
Finished 2/6/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 4671 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1940 & 2019 Rural North Carolina

First line/s:  "The children knew it was finally spring, so although the air still held the nip of winter and the grass and weeds crunched beneath their feet, they ran through the field  and woods, yipping with the anticipation of warmer weather."

My comments:  I very much enjoyed this enthralling narrative, weaving the dialogue of two women almost 80 years apart in the same small town of Edenton, NC.  short chapters switched back and forth effortlessly, spending just enough time in each time period.  Art, mystery, racism, prison life, alcoholism, prejudice, and long-kept secrets wind together to  create a believable story that I couldn't put down and didn't want to end.

Goodreads synopsis:  North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.
          North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.
          What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

11. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

listened to Audio - borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated  by Katie Schorr
Unabridged audio (9:26)
2019 Sourcebooks Landmark
308 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 1/17/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.25 - 18,615 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1936 Kentucky

First line/s:  "The librarian and her mule spotted it at the same time."

My comments:  Based on numerous historical facts and beautifully written.  Cussy - nicknamed Bluett because of her blue skin - riders her ornery mule, Junia, through treacherous eastern Kentucky mountains to deliver precious books and magazines to her poor, starving "patrons."  Ostracized with other people of color, she and her father - a coal miner dying of lung sickness - struggle to make a living and survive in the harshest of bad times.  There are lots of characters, all so well written that they quickly become unforgettable.  But no matter how difficult circumstances or situations become, Cussy's strong will and compassion carry her through.  I'm so glad I read this book, I almost didn't.  Will I remember it, will the story and its circumstances resonate?  Absolutely.

Goodreads synopsis:  In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.
          Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.
          The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a powerful message about how the written word affects people--a story of hope and heartbreak, raw courage and strength splintered with poverty and oppression, and one woman's chances beyond the darkly hollows. Inspired by the true and historical blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek showcases a bold and unique tale of the Packhorse Librarians in literary novels — a story of fierce strength and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.

Picture Book: The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrated by Rafael Lopez

2018 Nancy Paulsen, Penguin Random House

HC $18.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.52 - 3920 ratings 

My rating:  5
Endpapers: Lovely, simple growing things on a delicate light jade jade green background.

1^st line/s:  "There will be times when  you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you."

My comments:SO BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED! And with a great message, to boot.  Not a "story" persay, but a collection of thoughts about being different, understanding that difference, and in a way, being the same.  Lovely.

Goodreads: National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpre Illustrator Award winner Rafael Lopez have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.
          There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.
          Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael Lopez's dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.
          Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

127. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Listened to on Libby
narrated  by the author!!
Unabridged audio (7:27)
2019
400 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 12-16-2019
Goodreads rating:  4.24 - 53,740 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary Philadelphia

First line/s:  "Babygirl doesn't even cry when I suck my teeth and undo her braid for the fourth time."

My comments:  Set in Philadelphia, this is the story of a young woman, a brave young woman, who is raising the baby she gave birth to as a freshman.  She's no a senior. wondering what avenue her life will take. A natural, creative cook, raised by her abuela, always wondering and worrying about money.  She is not at all promiscuous and is very hesitant about becoming friends with a new student who appears very enamored of her.  Throughout her senior year we're allowed to watch and listen as she takers her final steps into adulthood.  It's an excellent story.  It's also read beautifully by a narrator that gives just the perfect lilt to this oh-so-interesting protagonist.

Goodreads synopsis:  With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

Picture Book - Ruby's Birds by Mya Thompson

Illustrated by Claudia Davila

2019 Cornell Lab Publishing Group

HC $16.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.52 - 63 ratings

My rating:  3
Endpapers: white with puffy clouds

1^st line/s:  "School's out.  Mom and Dad are at word.  My brother, Malik, is at soccer practice.  Grandma's at her spot near the window.  Alex keeps her company.  Things are too quiet around here."

My comments: A young girl is introduced to bird-watching in Central park by her neighbor.   There are lots of birds to search for in the illustrations, which are really fun.  The story has a really flat ending, however.  A great writing extension for 4th & 5th graders might be to write a better ending!

Goodreads: Sometimes the most beautiful things in nature can go unnoticed. Meet Ruby, a seven-year-old kid with the energy of the city in which she lives--New York City. She plays the piano--LOUDLY. She romps around the apartment--LOUDLY. And she sings songs she makes up herself--LOUDLY!
          So, when her downstairs neighbor Eva takes her on a nature walk through Central Park, Ruby has to learn how to slow down, step carefully, and be quiet enough to see and hear the amazing birds that are everywhere around her.
          From author Mya Thompson and illustrator Claudia D�vila comes a delightful story of a brand-new bird watcher just spreading her wings.

Picture Book - Under My Hijab by Hena Khan

Illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel
2019, Lee & Low Books

HC $17.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.37 - 597 ratings

My rating:  5!!!
Endpapers: Bright Pink
Written in quatrains with the second and fourth lines rhyming.

1^st line/s:  "Grandma peeks into the oven
as a brown loaf of bread starts to rise
Her hijab is carefully folded,
like the crusts on my favorite pies."

My comments:  A more-than-excellent book, probably one of my favorites so far this year.  Should be read to all kids AND ADULTS!!!

Goodreads:  Grandma wears it clasped under her chin. Aunty pins hers up with a beautiful brooch. Jenna puts it under a sun hat when she hikes. Zara styles hers to match her outfit. As a young girl observes six very different women in her life who each wear the hijab in a unique way, she also dreams of the rich possibilities of her own future, and how she will express her own personality through her hijab. Written in sprightly rhyme and illustrated by a talented newcomer, Under My Hijab honors the diverse lives of contemporary Muslim women and girls, their love for each other, and their pride in their culture and faith.

Picture Book Biography - Carter Reads the Newspaper by Deborah Hopkinson

Biography of Carter G. Woodson
Illustrated by Don Tate

2019 Peachtree Publishers

HC $17.95

36 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.24 - 156 ratings

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Line drawings of 27 noteworthy Black Americans
Includes a list of 43 black Americans with their dates, a timeline of Woodson's life, a full author's note and illustrator's note, and a long list of resources and bibliographic information.

1^st line/s:  "Each February we celebrate Black History Month.  It's a time to honor heroes like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King.  But there's one hero we sometimes forget.  Carter G. Woodson didn't help people escape from slavery, start a bus strike, or lead a movement of millions.  Yet without him, we might not have Black History Month.  This is his story."

My comments:  A great read aloud to introduce Carter G. Woodson to elementary students.  Great information and lovely illustrations.

Goodreads:  “Carter G. Woodson didn’t just read history. He changed it.” As the father of Black History Month, he spent his life introducing others to the history of his people.
          Carter G. Woodson was born to two formerly enslaved people ten years after the end of the Civil War. Though his father could not read, he believed in being an informed citizen. So Carter read the newspaper to him every day. When he was still a teenager, Carter went to work in the coal mines. There he met a man named Oliver Jones, and Oliver did something important: he asked Carter not only to read to him and the other miners, but also research and find more information on the subjects that interested them. “My interest in penetrating the past of my people was deepened,” Carter wrote. His journey would take him many more years, traveling around the world and transforming the way people thought about history.
          From an award-winning team of author Deborah Hopkinson and illustrator Don Tate, this first-ever picture book biography of Carter G. Woodson emphasizes the importance of pursuing curiosity and encouraging a hunger for knowledge of stories and histories that have not been told. Illustrations also feature brief biological sketches of important figures from African and African-American history. 

48. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

listened on Audible (borrowed from CCLS)
read by Bahni Turpin (great job)
Unabridged audio (11.56 - most I listened to at x1.25 because the narration was quite slow...)
2018 Baker & Bray
455 pgs.
YA dystopia
Finished June 1, 2019
Goodreads rating:  4.15 - 12,133 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Baltimore, MD and Kansas outback after the Civil War

First line/s:  "The day I came screaming and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me."

My comments:  The premise of this book was so hatefully racist that it was hard to read.  Our heroine, Jane, is smart, cocky, and very sure of herself - very likable indeed.  She deals with her lot in life with humor and honesty and it's never hard to swallow her decisions and motivations.  I listened to this while driving back-and-forth to Michigan and it certainly kept my attention, the wailing of the Shamblers notwithstanding!

Goodreads synopsis:  Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
          But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems. 

37. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

I read the actual hard-covered book, only the second one so far this year.
2018, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House
176 pgs.
Middle Grade Realistic Contemporary Fiction
Finished  4/9/19
Goodreads rating:  4.30 - 3971 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:  Contemporary Brooklyn, NY

First line/s:  "We think they took my papi."

My comments:  Hmmm.  This book is beautifully crafted, with kids opening up to each other in loving, generous ways.  But I have a few misgivings about it.  The six kids portrayed all have different difficulties, experiences, ethnicities ... too many to make it seem at all real, just convenient for a good story.  It's never revealed why they are all put into a "special" class of only six kids.  There seem to be no (or very few) learning disabilities, physical disabilities or particular special needs.  So why are they "special?"  I taught fifth grade for years, and I can't quite imagine something like this taking place without more goofing around, hurt feelings occasionally, more misunderstandings....  I feel badly that I can't rate it any higher, there are just too many things I'm left bothered by.
     Note:  The dialogue was not put within quotation marks, but italicized.  I really liked this.

Goodreads synopsis:  Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.
          It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them—everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

PICTURE BOOK - Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

Illustrated by the artist
2017 Caldecott Medal Winner

2016 Little Brown & Company

HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.16 - 2472 Ratings

My rating:  5 - This is a gorgeous, informative book!

Endpapers:  White grafitti on blue

Illustrations:  Done in the style of Basquiat, the information from the author/illustrator at the back of the book is extremely interesting.

1^st line/s:  "Somewhere in Brooklyn, between hearts that thump, double Dutch, and hopsxotch and salty mouths that slurp sweet ice, a little boy dreams of being a famous ARTIST."

This is an illustration from the book

My comments:  This book is a RADIANT book!  It's also extremely interesting.  I saw the movie The Upside last night, and Kevin Hart's character mention Basquiat.  Then, this morning, this book came across my desk.  I was MEANT to read it today, n'est pas?  It was wonderful, and prompts me to look further into his work, as his story and timeline seem similar to my wonderful Keith Haring.....

This is an actual piece of Basquiat's work!

Goodreads:  Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
          Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful.

MOVIE - Green Book

PG-13 (2:10)

Wide release 11/21/19

Viewed 12/27/18 at Carlisle Theater with Sandy
IMBd: 8.3/10

RT Critic:  82  Audience: 94
Critic's Consensus:   Green Booktakes audiences on a surprisingly smooth ride through potentially bumpy subject matter, fueled by Peter Farrelly's deft touch and a pair of well-matched leads.

Cag:  5

Directed by Peter Farrelly 

Universal Pictures

Based on a true story

Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini

My comments:  I wish they had chosen another name for this movie.  I can understand why they used it and how hard it might'v been to come up with a proper title, but this wasn't a good one for such a wonderful movie.  Based on a true story (I always wonder how much), it takes us back to the early 60s into the black and white communities of the deep South.  Oh, how I get pissed off!  It's all about a tough white Italian American from the Bronx taking on the job of driver for two months for a cultured black pianist who is performing in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, etc.  It's about how they slowly come around to becoming not just employer/employee, but like-minded friends.  Lots of gentle humor, earnestness, and head-shaking, maddening prejudice.

RT/ IMDb Summary  When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger-as well as unexpected humanity and humor-they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

Poetry Picture Book- Shaking Things Up by Susan Hood

14 Young Women Who Changed the World
2018, Harper
40pgs.
Children's Poetry and AMERICAN HISTORY, Biography
Read June 21, 2018
Goodreads rating:  4.53 - 277 ratings
My rating:  5
Endpapers:  Aqua

14 Women:  The Contents including Poem title follow:

Molly Williams, First Known Female Firefighter in the United States, (1747 – 1821)

                “Taking the Heat”

Mary Anning, Paleontologist, (1799 – 1847)

                “Buried Treasure” CONCRETE POETRY

Nellie Bly, Investigative Journalist, (1864 – 1922)

                “Woman of the World”

Annette Kellerman, Champion Athlete and Inventor of the Modern Swimsuit, (1886 – 1975)

                “Turning the Tide”

Pura Belpre, Children’s Author and First Latina Librarian at the New York Public Library, (1899 – 1982)

                “The Storyteller” ACROSTIC

Frida Kahlo, Artist, (1907 – 1954)

                “Broken”

Jacqueline Nearne, Undercover Operative (1916 – 1982) and Eileen Nearne, Wireless Operator (1921 – 2010)

                “Secret Agent Sisters”

Frances Moore, Lappe, Anti-Hunger Activist, (1944 –

                “Full Circle”

Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights Pioneer (1954 –

                “A New School”

Mae Johnson, First Female African American Astronaut (1956 –

                “Lift-Off”

Maya Lin, Architect and Sculptor (1959 –

                “A New Vision”

Angela Zhang, Scientist and Cancer Researcher (1994 –

                “Break It Down”

Malala Yousafzai, Youngest Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1997 –

                “Books, Not Bullets”

Author’s Note

Further Resources for each woman

My comments:  Not only are the poems relevant and interesting, they're really GOOD, really well written and great models of superb poetry for kids.

Goodreads synopsis: "Well-behaved women seldom make history." —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
          Fresh, accessible, and inspiring, Shaking Things Up introduces fourteen revolutionary young women—each paired with a noteworthy female artist—to the next generation of activists, trail-blazers, and rabble-rousers. From the award-winning author of Ada’s Violin, Susan Hood, this is a poetic and visual picture book that celebrates persistent women throughout history. 
          Among the powerful pairings: Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall takes on heroic World War II spies Eileen and Jacqueline Nearne; Selina Alko is matched with the brave Malala Yousafzai; New York Times bestselling illustrator Emily Winfield Martin is paired with the inventor of the controversial one-piece bathing suit, Annette Kellerman; and Shadra Strickland introduces America’s first known female firefighter, Molly Williams.
          While women make up over half of the U.S. population, they face discrimination, have less representation in government and other fields, and struggle every day for their human rights. It is more important now than ever to raise a generation of girls who, in the face of adversity, persevere. This book was written, illustrated, edited, and designed by women.
          Includes a foreword by a prominent female activist, an author’s note, a timeline, and additional resources.    
          This book features: Selina Alko, Sophie Blackall, Lisa Brown, Hadley Hooper, Emily Winfield Martin, Oge Mora, Julie Morstad, Sara Palacios, LeUyen Pham, Erin Robinson, Isabel Roxas, Shadra Strickland, and Melissa Sweet.