Barbara Hillary, the First Black Woman
to Reach the North and South Poles
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Atheneum Books
(Simon & Schuster)
pub. 10.21.2025
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Deborah Blumenthal
Illustrator: Anastasia Magloire Williams
Character: Barbara Hillary
Overview:
"As a young girl, Barbara Hillary imagined a life of adventure. Despite facing hardships in her childhood and illness as an adult, she never gave up on her dream: to travel the world and explore hard-to-reach places. So, at age seventy-five, she became the first Black woman to set foot on the North Pole. Less than four years later, she did the same at the South Pole.
Barbara loved everything the world has to offer. During her travels, she discovered that the remote places she cared so much about were threatened by climate change. From then on, she dedicated herself to saving the planet for future generations. She never let her age—or anything else—stop her until she stood at the top of the world!"
Tantalizing taste:
"Barbara Hillary lived in a world of you can, not you can't...
Barbara didn't worry about her health,
even when she was seventy-five
and even though cancer had made her lungs
work at 75 percent of what they should...
When she realized that a Black woman
had never made the...trek [to the North Pole]
an idea began to form.
She would be the adventurer
she never saw in her childhood books...
[After reaching the North and South Poles],
Barbara went on to visit other areas
where most travelers don't go,
learning about how climate change
had harmed places like the poles,
where temperatures were rising
and melting the ice...
If something wasn't done, no other adventurer
would be able to reach those places again."
And something more: Deborah Blumenthal in the Author's Note explains: "While Barbara's accomplishments were extraordinary for a person of any age, what struck me most was the fact that she refused to let time, fear, or negativity get in the way of her dreams...Barbara wanted her life to be an empowering example for others."
André Leon Talley―
A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Henry Holt
(MacKids)
pub. 11.11.2025
56 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Authors: Carole Boston Weatherford
and Rob Sanders
Illustrator: Lamont O'Neal
Character: André Leon Talley
Overview:
"Growing up in the Jim Crow South wasn't easy for young André. He escaped into the glimmering worlds he discovered inside magazines like Ebony and Vogue. He fell in love with all things French, and honed his taste for elegance and style in spite of those who judged and bullied him. Standing tall against all odds, André spun his hardships into a fashion fairytale of his own making."
Tantalizing taste:
"Safe on a fake-fur bench in his pink bedroom, André read articles and met famous people - like Vogue magazine's editor Diana Vreeland. He tore pages from the magazine to paper his walls and to create his own fairy tale world, an escape form the harshness of the real one."
And something more: Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders in A NOTE from the AUTHORS explain: "André Leon Talley was a man who was bigger than life. His commanding presence, individualism, and groundbreaking work made André memorable to both of us. Because André was African American and gay, we felt that we could bring our two voices together to tell his story. We found it interesting that, as an adult, André described his life as a fairy tale. So, we've woven throughout this story familiar characters, objects and themes from fairy tales - a witch's cauldron, Alice in Wonderland tumbling into a new world, a dangerous forest, and more. We hope André's story will inspire readers who may be different, may not fit in, or may be marching to their own drummer. "
Ulugh Beg's Quest to Map
the Stars and Seasons
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Harper Collins
pub. 9.30.2025
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: M. O. Yuksel
Illustrator: Zelma Firdauzia
Character: Ulugh Beg
Overview:
"Ulugh Beg’s curiosity burned as bright as the stars. He yearned to count every star in the sky, every day in a year, and to know why the seasons change. Fueled by his deep faith, Ulugh Beg’s quest for knowledge led to the creation of new schools, the world’s largest observatory and star catalog, and innovative tools to better chart the secrets of the skies. Although some doubted him, he never stopped searching for answers. And because of his determination, our understanding of the world has changed—forever.
Tantalizing taste:
"Many moons ago, in the fifteenth century, far away in the Timurid Empire, a young prince named Ulugh Beg gazed at the twinkling skies over Samarkand.
Curiosity filled his mind, and ideas soared inside him like shooting stars.
He questioned everything and wondered, How many stars are there?"
And something more: "For seventeen years, Ulugh Beg and his team carefully observed the night sky and prepared the greatest star catalog in history, called Zij-i Sultani, which lists 1,000 stars, with precise details about their positions... Ulugh Beg's star catalog is still used in modern times to date historical events, to observe the proper motion of the stars, and to study how the Earth's rotation is always changing...
Ulugh Beg was challenged by conservative religious leaders. In his time, astronomy (the study of stars) and astrology (fortune-telling) were considered the same science. Some religious leaders disagreed with is work, and political instability in his empire made things even harder for him.
After Ulugh Beg's death, his observatory was destroyed, but portions of it remain in Saarkand, Uzbekistan, as a museum."
