Review of Go Forth and Tell

The Life of Augusta Baker,

Librarian and Master Storyteller

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Dial Books for Young Readers

(Penguin Random House)

(pub. 2.6.2024)

40 pages

Ages 5-8

Author: Breanna J. McDaniel

   Illustrator: April Harrison

Character: Augusta Baker

Overview:

"Before Augusta Braxton Baker became a storyteller, she was an excellent story listener. Her grandmother brought stories like Br’er Rabbit and Arthur and Excalibur to life, teaching young Augusta that when there’s a will, there’s always a way.

When she grew up, Mrs. Baker began telling her own fantastical stories to children at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. But she noticed that there were hardly any books at the library featuring Black people in respectful, uplifting ways. Thus began her journey of championing books, writers, librarians, and teachers centering Black stories, educating and inspiring future acclaimed authors like Audre Lorde and James Baldwin along the way.

As Mrs. Baker herself put it: 'Children of all ages want to hear stories. Select well, prepare well and then go forth and just tell.'"

Tantalizing taste:

"She decided to use her voice - not just to share the stories she already knew, but to search out new ones, and even create some of her own.

Augusta remembered how the heroes in her grandmother's stories sometimes started out at the bottom but would rise up!

She wanted Black children to have heroes that rose up and looked, talked and shined bright ... just like them."

And something more: In the Author's Note, Breanna J. McDaniel shares a photo of herself with her childhood librarian, Ms. Michelle Carnes (to whom she dedicates the book) and explains: "Standing cheek-to-cheek with a woman who had known me when I was a young, passionate-about-everything girl and had, with her guidance and grace, helped me grow into the scholar and writer I am today, I fully understood why Audre Lourde adored Augusta Baker so much. Ms. Baker had taught her to read. She had saved her life, just as my own librarian had saved mine."

Review of Amazing Abe

How Abraham Cahan's Newspaper

Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Holiday House

(pub. 2.20.2024)

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author: Norman H. Finkelstein

   Illustrator: Vesper Stamper

Character: Abraham Cahan

Overview:

" Abraham Cahan was the founder and longtime editor of the Yiddish language newspaper, the Forverts (the Forward), which, in its heyday, was one of the largest newspapers in the United States. As the saying went: 'What's a home without the Forverts?'

From explaining voting rights to the importance of public health measures to everyday questions like how to play baseball, Cahan improved the lives of countless newly arrived Jewish immigrants who wanted to feel at home in a new, strange land. He also published celebrated writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer and created the iconic advice column the Bintel Brief (Bundle of Letters) for homesick readers."

Tantalizing taste:

"With the newspaper's success Abe built a ten-story building with a blazing electric Forverts sign in Yiddish on top. That sign and the newspaper he created were beacons of hope to those early Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Decades later, although their children and grandchildren may not speak Yiddish, we remember that it was Abe and his Forverts that helped families keep their old traditions while making new lives for themselves in the United States."

And something more: Norman H. Finkelstein explains in the Author's Note: "My relationship with the Forverts began at a very young age. My grandparents and parents arrived from Europe with Yiddish as their first language. In America, the Forverts was their link to the world. My job was to often pick up the newspaper for them at a local deli. My own Yiddish abilities were minimal, but I was specifically attracted to the Sunday issues, which contained a separate section with sepia news photographs from around the world with English subtitles... Like many others, I forgot about the Forverts until they began publishing an English edition... made relevant to a new generation of readers who did not know Yiddish."

Review of Guts for Glory

The Story of Civil War Solider Rosetta Wakeman

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

(pub. 2.27.2024)

56 pages

Ages 7 -12

Author and illustrator: Joanna Lapati

Character: Rosetta Wakeman

Overview:

" In 1862, the war between North and South showed no signs of stopping. In rural New York, nineteen-year-old Rosetta Wakeman longed for a life beyond the family farm. One day she made a brave, bold choice: she cut her braid and disguised herself as a man. No one suspected that “Lyons” was a woman—not even when she signed up to fight for the Union. As Rosetta’s new regiment traveled to Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, she sent letter after letter home to New York. Army life wasn’t easy, but Rosetta knew it was where she belonged— supporting her family and serving her country.

Through intricately detailed scratchboard art and excerpts from Rosetta’s letters, this fascinating biography introduces young readers to an unconventional woman who was determined to claim her own place in history. "

Tantalizing taste:

" So a life filled with chores soon became dull.

She wanted something ... different.

She wanted something ... more.

So one night, when her family was asleep, Rosetta made a bold decision. She bound her chest, got dressed in her pa's old clothes, clutched a pair of shears in one hand ,took a deep breath ... and cut off her braid. Then she tiptoed out of the old, creaky house.

Outside, a breeze tickled her bare neck.

She practiced speaking in deep, low tones and pondered a name for her new self. 'Lyons Wakeman,' she whispered."

And something more: The More About Rosetta Wakeman and the Civil War explains: "We have no records of what the Wakemans thought of their soldier-daughter's letters as they arrived, but (however they felt" they stored her letters for years after the war. Rosetta wrote frequently, constantly reassuring her family that she was still well... On June 19, 1864, Rosetta Wakeman died from dysentery - the deadliest disease of the Civil War... Rosetta had been hospitalized for over a month, and during that time (as far as history records), no one had learned her secret.

She was buried under the name Lyons Wakeman ...

Through the efforts of [her sister] and other relatives Rosetta's letters were eventually published as the only letters that share a woman soldier's perspective on the Civil War as it happened."