- 17 minutes ago
The First Woman to
Serve on the United States
Supreme Court
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Sleeping Bear Press
pub. 5.1.2025
40 pages
Ages 6 - 9
Author: Molly Golden
Illustrator: Julia Breckenreid
Character: Sandra Day O'Connor
Overview:
"On September 25, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to be a Supreme Court Justice in United States history. But who was Sandra Day O’Connor?
In the 1930s, it was hard to imagine any woman sitting on the highest court in the country, let alone a girl from a ranch in Arizona. At that time, girls (and women) were expected to learn how to keep house and cook meals. But even at a young age, Sandra knew she wanted a life beyond the traditional roles expected of women.
No one told Sandra what she could and couldn’t do. By challenging the assumptions of what women could and should do, Sandra opened the doors for others to do the same. Sandra Day O’Connor was the first, but her work ensured that she would not be the last!"
Tantalizing taste:
"Sandra cast the deciding vote in many important cases that helped protect civil rights, gender equality, religious freedom, and the environment.
Sandra believed people could learn from each other when they came together. She insisted all the justices meet for lunch once a week. Sometimes she sat in their ofice until they agreed to join."
And something more: The back matter explains that "After Sandra retired from the Supreme Court, she ... continued to avocate around the world for what she believed in: democracy, equal justice under the law, and the rule of law. She even carried a copy of the Constitution in her pocketbook."
- Nov 13
The Story of America's First Female Smokejumper
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Viking Books for Young Readers
(Penguin Random House)
pub. 7.1.2025
40 pages
Ages 4 - 7
Author: Jessica Lawson
Illustrator: Sarah Gonzales
Character: Deanne Shulman
Overview:
"Deanne loved being outdoors.
With her family, she spent summers sailing the Salton Sea and backpacking the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As she grew older, her love of nature only grew. So when the heat rose each fire season and the blazes burned near and far, she noticed. Deanne knew she had to do her part in fighting the fires.
She spent years on woodland crews, clearing brush and branches that could make the fire spread, and on hotshot crews where she fought faster fires and took bigger risks, spending weeks in one-hundred-degree heat working twenty-four-hour shifts.
But what Deanne really wanted was to be a smokejumper, to jump from planes and parachute into dangerous wildfires that no truck could ever reach. To be the first line of defense. The only problem? There had never been a female smokejumper before.."
Tantalizing taste:
"She kept training,
to keep her body strong and ready.
She kept working,
joining a helicopter rappel crew
in Oregon.
She kept listening,
remembering voices of the smokejumpers
who believed in her
as much as she believed in herself."
And something more: Jessica Lawson in the Author's Note explains: "Deanne Shulman made national history by breaking into the ranks of all-male smokejumpers. Because of her efforts, the minimum weight requirement has changed to 120 pounds and the height requirement to five feet. Though Deanne often balks at being labeled a hero, she opened the door of opportuity for all women who work as wildland firefighters...
I've spent a great deal of my life in Colorado, where wildfires are an annual problem... I am incredibly grateful to people like Deanne, who fight on the front lines of wildfires to protect our livelihoods."
- Nov 12
Updated: Nov 14
The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
PM Press
pub. 10.14.2025
32 pages
Ages 3 - 8
Author: Michelle Markel
and Marcus Rediker
Illustrator: Sarah Bachman
Character: Benjamin Lay
Overview:
"Fearless Benjamin tells the story of a courageous little person, only four feet tall, who fought slavery at a time when almost everyone else accepted it.
A shepherd, a sailor, and a Quaker, Benjamin Lay insisted that all people, of all nations and races around the world, were equal. Every human being—rich and poor, men and women, Black and white—deserved respect, love, and freedom.
After he protested against his fellow Quakers for enslaving others in violation of the golden rule, “do to others as you would have them do to you,” they banished him from the Quaker meeting.
When they ridiculed his small body, he stood up to their prejudice and proclaimed the truth of human decency.
He boycotted all products made by the labor of enslaved people. He spoke out bravely against cruelty and oppression. He lived a life of peace, tolerance, and brotherly love. A man far ahead of his time, he proved to be right in the long run, as Quakers and others eventually joined him in opposing human bondage."
Tantalizing taste:
"Years pass...
until one day,
a friend brings the news: The quakers will disown members who
take part in the slave trade!
Though his health has worsened, Benjamin's heart soars with joy.
His enemies have seen that he's not foolish, not inferior,
he's right! Right to use every inch of his little body
to protest the greatest wickedness in the world.
Right to dream of a world
without bondage,
right to defend his Black
brothers and sisters,
because we're put on this earth to help
one another. Through calm and stormy seas,
it's one and all."
And something more: Author's Note by Marcus Rediker explains: Benjamin Lay "believed that all good people must 'speak truth to power,' that is, speak out against injustices whenever and wherever they arise. Benjamin stood out among abolitionists for his confrontational methods of protest and his urgent insistence that slavery be abolished immediately. He based his life on universal ideals of peace, equality, and justice, which are as important to our own age as they were to his, almost three hundred years ago."
