Today, August 26th, is Women’s Equality Day which commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote. This day reflects the culmination of a movement which had begun in the 1830s when rising middle-class American women, with an increasing educational background, began to critique the oppressive systems of the early 19th century.
The post 10 facts worth knowing about the U.S. women’s rights movement appeared first on OUPblog.
A gifted orator, Lucy Stone dedicated her life to the fight for equal rights. Among the earliest female graduates of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio, Stone was the first Massachusetts-born woman to earn a college degree. Stone rose to national prominence as a well-respected public speaker – an occupation rarely pursued by women of the era.
The post The life and legacy of Lucy Stone appeared first on OUPblog.
By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: March 23, 2012
Women’s History Month is a time to honor women who have helped shape the world and inspire us with their leadership and heroism. In this eclectic list of new titles, these remarkable women (Sylvia Earle, Georgia O’Keeffe, Daisy Gordon Low, Zitkala-Sa, Lily Renee Wilhelm, Beryl Markham, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony) all have one thing in common: adventurous spirits and the willingness to take great risks to make bold discoveries.
By Amy Novesky; illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Georgia O’Keeffe led life on her own terms, but when we usually think of her it’s likely sketching on her Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, not in tropical Hawaii. Amy Novesky depicts O’Keeffe on her tour of Hawaii where she painted gorgeous exotic flowers, exquisitely rendered by Yuyi Morales. Together they have created a unique tribute to this innovative artist and also to the beauty and splendor of the islands of Hawaii. For more information on Amy Novesky and her work, please read our interview. (Ages 6-9. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Every-Day Dress-Up
By Selina Alko
Inspired to give her daughter an alternative to the panoply of princess dress-up books, Selina Alko created Every-Day-Dress-Up for her. On Monday, she can become the First Lady of Flight Amelia Earhart and on Tuesday, Ella Fitzgerald the Queen of Jazz. The back of the book includes “biographies of a few great women” for further reading about our sheroes. There’s no need to purchase another pretty princess book, when you have this one full of modern day heroines for our daughters. (Ages 5-8. Publisher: Random House Children’s Books.)
By Claire A. Nivola
The beauty of Nivola’s book is the expansive sense, she creates with her story and breathtaking illustrations, for the immensity and wonder in our oceans. Once Sylvia Earle moved from her childhood farm in rural New Jersey to Florida, she begins her lifelong love affair with oceanography.
5 books that not only acknowledge women's achievements, but celebrate them and empower young girls (our women of the future).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, social activist
Nov. 12, 1815-Oct. 26, 1902
Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote by Tanya Lee Stone illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Henry Holt & Company, 2008)
As a child, Elizabeth Cady wanted to do “anything any boy could.” And she did. As an adult, Stanton and others proposed women should have the vote. Millions of women took up the cause, and eighteen years after her death, Stanton’s dream became law.
Find the papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony at the Rutgers site dedicated to findings and publishing their work.
For my inaugural post, I was planning on introducing myself and talking a bit about the different approaches the trade vs. educational market nonfiction take, and what that means to writers and readers. But after what happened yesterday, I guess I’ll hold off until March for that. Although I will introduce myself, as I was always taught to do by my dear old Gram.
Briefly, I studied English at Oberlin College and received a Master in Education from Southern CT State University. I was an editor of children’s nonfiction for 13 years before moving away from New York City and starting to write full-time. I’ve been doing that for a bit more than 10 years now. Nice to meet you. So, on to what happened yesterday.
A local school put together a wonderful program called A Day of A Thousand Stars, in which people from all over the community descended upon said school for a marathon read-aloud. Every half-hour, a different visitor was escorted to one of the classrooms by a lovely 4th grade host. The joint was buzzing with visiting readers! The local celeb pediatrician, the youth soccer coach, the high school principal, the high school stars of a recent musical production, the lady with the greyhound therapy dog, and me, local author. Most readers chose from the wonderful selection of picture books in the library, or even brought their own favorites to read to their designated classroom.
I brought nonfiction.
Can you feel their hesitation? I did. But not for long.
First, I hooked them with the notion that they were getting sneak peeks. I had no selection of bound books with me. I opened my bag and took out one f&g, and one stack of color printouts. Books that were not quite books yet. Oh yeah, that got their attention.
Until one child asked, “Wait, are these true stories?” (Think Fred Savage in the Princess Bride saying, "Wait a minute. Is this a kissing book?" Same disdain.)
Yes, I nodded.
Was that disappointment I detected in their eyes? Never fear, I pushed on.
First
I read from my f&g of
Elizabeth Leads the Way and got them riled up about how unfair it was for women who lived in a time when they had no rights. A time when a girl named
Elizabeth Cady got more and more fed up and finally did something about it. That class perked right up! They totally got it. Lots of heads nodding up and down.
Then, I read them
Sandy’s Circus and saw them marvel at
Boris Kulikov’s paintings. This story had them on the edge of their seats. Who was Calder? Is he still alive? How did you know about him? Where can I see his art? And on and on. It was a serious thrill for me as well, since I had never read this story aloud before. After all, it won’t be a book until September.
They asked questions, they clapped, and they asked when, oh when, would they be able to get their hands on some nonfiction! My day was made. Those are the moments when you thank goodness you had the good sense to truck on over to a local school and participate.
The only thing that came close—and this is for authors everywhere—is when one of the guest readers showed me the book he brought to read. A beloved, ragged copy of a book he has had since kindergarten—and yes, the book was nonfiction!
P.S. A note about the book title links: linking to the specific book pages on my website doesn't seem to be working and the links are defaulting to my home page. You can still get to where you want to be by clicking on Picture Books. Sorry! I'll try to find out why.
It took me forever to find the name of the artist for this wonderful illustration. It's by Arthur Rackham, an influential illustrator around the turn of the century, who I should have learned about in school but instead learned about "real" artists and how to make mosaics.
Here's what ticks me off. There are some great books out there that have hundreds of illustrations in them. Yet there are no credits given to the artists. The book I found this pic in had not credits, but acknowledgements. This means the photo or art service. This is a disservice to the illustrator and the reader. It is also, in my opinion, an immoral industry to supply photos of works of art in the category of, essentially, clip art.
Anyways, it took a while but I found it, and discovered that Arthur Rackham was an incredibly talented and prolific illustrator. He illustrated several classic books such as Wind in the Willows, worked with Barry on some Peter Pan books, and there is a website with scores of his illustrations, but I won't put the link up because all it is is an attempt to sell prints and mugs and postcards of his art. Wouldn't he love that? How can someone with no talent themselves stoop to going around pulling bad reproductions of public domain work and make a business out of selling bad prints and matchbooks of the art? (notice the watermark on the Valkyrie illo.)
On the other hand, I'm no big proponent of what modern corporations are doing to keep their properties from falling into the public domain (like Superman), by having copyright laws changed that don't really help creators, just corporations... and "re-creating" characters so that they can legally call them new properties (like killing Superman and bringing him back... a shallow attempt to create a new property from an old one just when the copyright and trademark end was looming near.)
All the corporations, and even some art reps, were sending lobbyists to Washington to fight the Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act, which would have removed us from anti-trust laws which disallow us from negotiating prices and terms as a group against media giants. It would be nice to have some laws concerning art and writing that actually are in the interest of artists and writers. Making Work for Hire illegal would be a good first step! And how about giving credit to all artists, whether living or dead.
The reason the Laws concerning art are important is because that affects the public attitude toward art.
