How Do You Spell UNFAIR?

MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Candlewick Press

(pub.4.11.2023) 40 pages

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrator: Frank Morrison

Character: MacNolia Cox

Overview:

"In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding.

She left her home state a celebrity—right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens—with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station.

But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled—on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself."

Tantalizing taste:

" The judges, mostly from the segregated South,

couldn't seem to stump her.

Then they threw a curveball,

a word that MacNolia hadn't studied -

nemesis.

N-E-M-A-S-I-S, she answered.

MacNolia's teacher and the newspaper reporter

protested. They argued that the word nemesis

was not on the official list. Furthermore,

in MacNolia's dictionary, the word was a proper noun-

referring to a Greek goddess - and thus not acceptable.

The judges stood by their decision.

Can you spell unfair?

U-N-F-A-I-R"

And something more: The Epilogue states: "MacNolia Cox was smart enough to excel at any career. However, she could not afford to attend college and wound up working as a maid for a doctor. She died in 1976 at age fifty-three ... In 2021, fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee ... That same year the US Senate passed a resolution honoring MacNolia Cox's life, legacy, and achievements."

A Take-Charge Girl

Blazes a Trial to Congress

The Story of Jeannette Rankin

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Calkins Creek

(Astra Books)

(pub.2.7.2023) 40 pages

ages 7-10

Author: Gretchen Woelfle

Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon

Character: Jeannette Rankin

Overview:

" Jeannette Rankin was always a take-charge girl. Whether taking care of horses or her little brothers and sisters—Jeannette knew what to do and got the job done. That’s why, when she saw poor children living in bad conditions in San Francisco, she knew she had to take charge and change things.

But in the early twentieth century, women like Jeannette couldn’t vote to change the laws that failed to protect children. Jeannette became an activist and led the charge, campaigning for women’s right to vote. And when her home state, Montana, gave women that right, Jeannette ran for Congress and became America’s first congressWOMAN!"

Tantalizing taste:

" When she finally spoke, she lambasted congressmen who had voted to spend $300,000 to study food for hogs, and only $30,000 to study the needs of children.

She said, 'if the hogs of the nation are ten times more important than the children, it is high time that women should make their influence felt.'"

And something more: In the Acknowledgments, author Gretchen Woelfle writes "...My esteemed writers' group - Alexis O'Neill, Caroline Arnold, Ann Stampler, and Sherrill Kushner - having read multiple drafts of this book, know (and love) Jeannette nearly as well as I do ... [and] I've been a fan of Rebecca Gibbon's art for many years now, and am honored to share Jeannette's story with her."

The Story of the Saxophone

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Holiday House

(pub.3.28.2023) 40 pages

ages 6-9

Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome

Illustrator: James E. Ransome

Character: Joseph-Antoine Adolphe Sax

Overview:

" You may think that the story of the saxophone begins with Dexter Gordon or Charlie Parker, or on a street corner in New Orleans. It really began in 1840 in Belgium with a young daydreamer named Joseph-Antoine Adolphe Sax—a boy with bad luck but great ideas.

Lesa Cline-Ransome unravels the fascinating history of how Adolphe's once reviled instrument was transported across Europe and Mexico to New Orleans. Follow the saxophone's journey from Adolphe's imagination to the pawn shop window where it caught the eye of musician Sidney Bechet and became the iconic symbol of jazz music it is today."

Tantalizing taste:

" His father let him be while Adolphe tested and tinkered and tweaked with keys and levers and reeds. Adolphe played flute, clarinet, and nearly every instrument you can imagine, including his own creations - the steam organ, the sax tuba, the sax trombone, the euphonium, the bass tuba, and the flugelhorn.

But Adolphe was daydreaming of a new sound. Just the right sound ...

He knew that [symphonies and marching bands] needed an instrument that was not as loud as a trumpet. Not as soft as a clarinet. Somewhere right in the middle."

And something more: The Story of the Saxophone concludes with references to the great saxophonists:

"Adolphe passed away in 1894, but in New Orleans and other cities, his saxophone lived.

On the street corners and in juke joints, at funerals and in jazz clubs, the sound of the saxophon spread to every corner of New Orleans. Only now people called it the saxophone. One day, when a New Orleans clarinetist named Sidney Bechet picked up a saxophone that blew low and slow, just how he liked it, he put down his clarinet and never picked it up again.

Coleman Hawkins heard Sidney play.

And Lester Young heard Coleman play.

And Charlie Parker heard Lester play.

And Dexter Gordon heard Charlie play. And everyone heard Dexter play the saxophone, that began far, far away, across the seas, in a workshop in Belgium, made by a boy everyone called Adolphe."