The Strongest Woman in the World!
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Calkins Creek
(pub.12.3.2024)
48 pages
Ages 7 - 10
Author: Vicki Conrad
Illustrator: Jeremy Holmes
Character: Sandwina (Katie Brumbach)
Overview:
" 100 pounds . . . 200 pounds . . . 300 pounds! Katie Brumbach became the world’s top strongwoman after she ousted Eugen Sandow by lifting hundreds of pounds over her head (which Sandow could barely lift to his shoulders).
After that, she took the last name Sandwina and thrived in the circus world—which she had been participating in since the age of two when she first performed with her family. She grew over six feet tall as she got older, but Katie never second-guessed herself, and she trained to build her muscles, always eager to test her skills and try new feats.
After starting a family with a fellow performer, they were eventually signed to work with John Ringling of the Ringling Bros. Circus. Sandwina impressed the crowds by balancing a 1,000-pound cannon on her chest, by throwing a one-ton stone, and by having an iron slab broken on her body—she stole the show!"
Tantalizing taste:
"Never a circus freak, always a circus star.
Sandwina proved strength was beauty, and beauty was strength. Katie's bold costumes showed off every muscle. With her hair piled high and in high-heeled boots to make herself look even taller, she glowed with feminine charm."
And something more: The author, Vicki Conrad, shared in A Writer's Inspiration: "Katie... changed society's ideas of beauty, simply by embracing who she was born to be. A titaness - strength and beauty combined. Katie was a powerful changemaker and an inspiration... It is so hard to be different, but Katie loved herself, and the world loved her, too. My dream is that girls will see their bodies a useful, beautiful, and worthy. Just like the like unstoppable Sandwina."
The Art and Heart of Corita Kent
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Candlewick Press
(pub.11.5.2024)
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Dan Paley
Illustrator: Victoria Tentler-Krylov
Character: Corita Kent
Overview:
" Frances Kent always loved making things. When she joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, she took the name Corita—meaning little heart—and devoted her life to what mattered most to her: art and religion.
As an art teacher, Sister Corita emphasized practice and process over the final product and taught her students to experiment and break the rules.
As a religious person, she turned her faith into concrete action and spoke out about the injustices she saw in the world. In the height of post-war consumerist culture, Corita, a contemporary of Andy Warhol, turned advertising on its head and wrote a new kind of scripture."
Tantalizing taste:
"Through her art, Sister Mary Corita engaged with the overlapping artisti``c and social revolutions of the 1950s and '60s to spur change, change that she knew would take love, and hard work. 'To e fully alive,' she once said, 'is to work for the common good.'"
And something more: The author, Dan Paley, shared in the Author's Note: Corita's "work had a profound influence on the visual identity of the 1960s and has greatly influenced the fields of graphic design, advertising, and pop art, yet she remains largely unknown even in those fields. This is what inspired me to learn more about her and, ultimately, to write this book... I discovered a teacher whose method with students of all ages opened their eyes to what was possible, not just on the canvas but in their communities and in society as a whole: an artist who used color, perspective, and the written word to make the common uncommon; and an activist whose message of love and peace empowers us for the work ahead."
How John Lewis Got His Library Card -
and Helped Change History
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Viking Books for Young Readers
(pub. 1.7.2025)
32 pages
Ages 4 -8
Author: Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrator: Jerry Jordan
Character: John Lewis
Overview:
" All John Lewis wanted was a library card, but in 1956, libraries were only for white people.
That didn't seem fair to John, and so he spent a lifetime advocating for change and fighting against unfair laws until the laws changed. Finally, black people could eat at restaurants, see movies, vote in elections, and even get library cards."
Tantalizing taste:
"Wherever he was, John worked for equal rights. He even wrote about it.
Then John returned to his hometown library. The one that told him "No" when he was sixteen [in 1956].
He gave a speech. Hundreds of people came. When John finished, the librarians gave him a library card. Forty-two years after he'd first asked for one.
And something more: Pat Zietlow Miller shared in the Author's Note: "John was inspired by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he'd heard speak about nonviolent civil protests. John didn't get his card that day, but his request - and the letter he wrote afterward stating that the library should be for everyone - was his first protest."
