PICTURE BOOK - Sonia Sotomayor: Turning Pages: My Life Story by Sonia Sotomayor

Illustrated by Lulu Delacre

2018 Philomel Books

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.31 - 209 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers: two dozen photos of Sotomayor through her life

1^st line/s:

My comments: Wornderful story, words and wording, AND illustrations. Truly a lovely book.  She attributes books and libraries ass the stepping stones on her life path….Nancy Drew and Lord of the Flies in particular.  She also highlights her love of family and her roots in Puerto Rico.

Goodreads:  Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor tells her own story for young readers for the very first time!
          As the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor has inspired young people around the world to reach for their dreams. But what inspired her? For young Sonia, the answer was books! They were her mirrors, her maps, her friends, and her teachers. They helped her to connect with her family in New York and in Puerto Rico, to deal with her diabetes diagnosis, to cope with her father’s death, to uncover the secrets of the world, and to dream of a future for herself in which anything was possible.
          In Turning Pages, Justice Sotomayor shares that love of books with a new generation of readers, and inspires them to read and puzzle and dream for themselves. Accompanied by Lulu Delacre’s vibrant art, this story of the Justice’s life shows readers that the world is full of promise and possibility–all they need to do is turn the page.

PICTURE BOOK - Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R. B. G. vs. Inequality by Jonah Winter

Illustrated by Stacy Innerst

2017, Abrams Books for Young Adults

HC $18.95

40 pgs.
This is a picture book for older kids, perhaps grade 4 and up?

Goodreads rating:  4.39 - 359 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers"  Shelves and shelves of books, with Ms. Ginsburg on a ladder, accessing them.  Lt. brown background, with books in shades of browns and reds.

Illustrations:  Most are in browns and reds, Most are fine, but I don't really like the cover. I'm sure others do.

1^st line/s:  "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: During this trial,  you will learn about a little girl who had no clue just how important she would become.  You will see the unfair world she was born nto - where boys were valued more than girls, where women were not encouraged to achieve and aspire.  You will see evidence of that unfairness, just as she herself has seen it all her life.

     Here are the facts of her case."

My comments:  This seemingly tiny woman is a powerhouse.  I love hearing her speak when I see her on Facebook or on the tv.  Smart,  Fair.  And, unfortunately getting older.  Born in 1933, that makers her somewhere in her 84th year, and still going strong!  Highly recommended to school age kids AND adults!

Goodreads:  To become the first female Jewish Supreme Court Justice, the unsinkable Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to overcome countless injustices. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and ’40s, Ginsburg was discouraged from working by her father, who thought a woman’s place was in the home. Regardless, she went to Cornell University, where men outnumbered women four to one. There, she met her husband, Martin Ginsburg, and found her calling as a lawyer. Despite discrimination against Jews, females, and working mothers, Ginsburg went on to become Columbia Law School’s first tenured female professor, a judge for the US Court of Appeals, and finally, a Supreme Court Justice.
          Structured as a court case in which the reader is presented with evidence of the injustice that Ginsburg faced, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the true story of how one of America’s most “notorious” women bravely persevered to become the remarkable symbol of justice she is today

PICTURE BOOK - The Case for Loving: the Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko

Illustrated by the author's husband, Sean Qualls

2015 Arthur A. Levine/ Scholastic

Author's note & Bibliography
HC $18.99

32 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 4.27 - 836 ratings

My rating: 5+

Endpapers: white with hearts and music

Illustrations: Collage and paint and colored pencils (mixed media) Edge of page to edge of page :)

Preface:  "Imagine not being able to marry the person you loved, just because they were a race different from your own.  Here is the story of the love between Mildred and Richard Loving.  Here is the story of the courage they needed to have that love recognized:  a story about how the law changed for the better, about how the law made room for the Lovings, and by doing so made way for love."

My comments:  This book is a SIX star book!  Selina Alko writes the story perfectly.  It couldn't have been told better, or illustrated more lovingly or well.  Because this book is shelved in our library in the nonfiction section instead of the picture books, I  almost missed it.  It was because of the recent movie about the Lovings that it jumped out at me.  Thanks goodness.  I loved it.  I  want to own it.  I want to share it with every 8, 9, 10 11, 55, or 88 year old I see.  This is the story of the two people who fought for nine years to have their interracial marriage legal in their home state of Virginia. It wasn't until 1967 ... 1967!!! ... that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of interracial marriage....because of this shy, loving pair who only wanted to be able to live as a married couple. Superbly told story by a interracial couple - terrifically!

Goodreads:  For most children these days it would come as a great shock to know that before 1967, they could not marry a person of a race different from their own. That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.
          This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court - and won!

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx - Jonah Winter

Illustrated by Edel Rodriguez
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
Rating: 4.5
For: grades 1-4
Endpapers: Yellow with white flowering vines
Back - author's note

This is a beautifully written picture book biography that introduces our newest supreme court justice to the world. It tells of her roots in poverty in the south Bronx and of the strong, loving mother who did everything in her power to feed, nurture, and educate her children. She instilled in her daughter a passion for learning, for success, to be and do her very best. She got into Princeton. I'm guessing a good part of her life might have been lonely - but she was proud to be Latino and proved that just because she was not a white male she could more-than succeed. Her story is one to be shared with every kid in our country.

Thanks, Johan Winter, for this fascinating peek at Sonia Sotomayor's childhood.

An added plus - the entire book is translated into Spanish on each page. Excellent!

The illustrations are not overpowering, they're gentle pen and ink, then colored, and enhance the story beautifully. I love the picture of her looking out her Princeton dorm window at a cricket in a tree.

Super book.