Mary Walker Wears the Pants

The True Story of
The Doctor, Reformer,
and Civil War Hero

This post joins other Nonfiction Monday blogs hosted today
by Practically Paradise

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Albert Whitman & Company
(pub. 3.1.2013) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Cheryl Harness

     and Illustrator:  Carlo Molinari

C haracter: Mary Walker

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Mary Edwards Walker was always an outspoken woman. She was one of America's first woman doctors, and she fought for women's rights and gave speeches around the county. But she could also make a statement just by walking down the street - wearing pants in a time when women always wore dresses!
       When the Civil War struck, she set out to serve her country and treat wounded soldiers - not as a nurse, but a a doctor. She faced extreme danger behind enemy lines and for her bravery she received the Medal of Honor, the highest award a war veteran can receive. She remains the first and only woman to ever hold this honor..."

T antalizing taste: 

    "After the war, audiences in America and abroad paid to hear Mary tell about her Civil War service and her imprisonment - and to see her in her notorious gentlemanly suit. It got her laughed at and made people angry. It caused scenes and even got her arrested! ...
    But there was more to Mary than her trousers. She lived as she believed, as an individual, fully equal and entitled to walk, breathe, and think freely, unbound by a corset or her society's expectations."

                       

and something more: I was intrigued by the statement that Mary Edwards Walker was "the first and only woman" to ever receive the Medal of Honor. The back matter explains that "in 1917, the U.S. Congress ordered 84 year-old Mary, along with 910 other honorees, to return their Medals of Honor. The rules had been changed: the medal could only be awarded to those who'd been in 'actual combat with the enemy.' ... Mary refused to give back her medal. She wore it all the remaining days of her life until she died... at the age of 86... And, on June 10, 1977, President Jimmy Carter officially restored the Medal of Honor to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker." Only fair given the injustice of taking back medals because the rules changed later!

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Heart on Fire

Susan B. Anthony Votes
for President

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday hosted today

by Supratentorial

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Albert Whitman & Company

(pub.6.1.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Ann Malaspina

     and Illustrator: Steve James

C haracter: Susan B. Anthony

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "It was election time in Rochester, New York, and the newspapers and street posters encouraged everyone to vote. All men, that is, because it was against the law for a woman to vote in New York or any other state.
        On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony went to the polls in Rochester to cast her ballot for president. By voting, she broke the law - but Anthony thought the law was unjust. She believed that the new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave all citizens the right to vote.
       Ann Malaspina's stirring free verse portrays Anthony's daring act and her subsequent arrest and trial. Steve James's vivid paintings convey the courage of a woman who helped to change the world."

T antalizing taste: 

       "The next day, the judge asked,
        'Do you have anything to say?'
         Miss Anthony rose to her feet.
        'Yes, Your Honor, I have many things to say ...
         You have trampled under foot
         every principle of our government.
         My natural rights,
         my civil rights,
         my political rights,
         my judicial rights,
         are all alike ignored.'

         The crowd inhaled.
         The prosecutor tightened his lips.
         The judge banged his gavel.
         'The court cannot allow the prisoner to go on!'

          Her heart was on fire.
          No one could stop her.

                       

and something more: I thought Heart on Fire is a perfect one to kick off Women's History Month. The note at the end of the book made an interesting comparison between Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks: "Anthony knew that her vote might be challenged... Like Rosa Parks in 1955, a black woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus as the segregationist laws of Alabama required, Anthony was practicing civil disobedience. She broke an unjust law in order to try to change it."
             She was arrested for voting and after losing the trial, the text of Heart on Fire explains that "the judge ordered her to pay one hundred dollars plus court costs. Outrageous. Unbelievable. True.  She had one more thing to say, as a person and a citizen. 'May it please Your Honor,' Miss Anthony said, 'I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.' And Susan B. Anthony never did."

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Touch the Sky

Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday hosted today by
The Flatt Perspective

and joins It's Monday! What are you reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts

Albert Whitman & Company

(pub. 12.1.2011) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Ann Malaspina

     and Illustrator:  Eric Velasquez

C haracter: Alice Coachman

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "In Alice Coachman's Georgia hometown, there was no field where an African-American girl could do the high jump, so she made her own crossbar with sticks and rags. After seeing her jump at a meet, Coach Cleve Abbott asked Alice to join the Tuskegee Institute's famous Golden Tigerettes. Soon she was winning many medals. But Alice still had a big dream - to compete at the Olympics. No African-American woman had ever won an Olympic Gold.
       At the London Olympics in 1948, Alice was ready to make history.
        Ann Malaspina's lyrical free-verse biography will inspire young readers. Eric Velasquez's stunning paintings bring this remarkable athlete to life."

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "One day a man came by
             to collect the rent. 
             He saw Alice, 
             bare feet flying
             long legs spinning, 
             braids flapping,
             in the yard.
             'Evelyn, that gal's gonna
             jump over the moon
             one of these days,'
             he said to Momma.

             The moon was so far
             from Albany, where
             Momma saved pennies
             because there weren't 
             ever enough.
             But a dream
             is a beginning,
             and as Alice grew older,
             her dream was to soar."
          

and something more: Ann Malaspina's Author's Note in Touch the Sky explains that Alice Coachman became a "celebrity back home. When Alice's train pulled into Atlanta, Georgia, [she] rode in a motorcade across the state to Albany... Crowds lined the road to catch a glimpse of Georgia's Olympic champion... Fancy floats lined up to greet her in Albany. The parade ended at the Albany municipal Auditorium where a grand ceremony had been arranged. Never before had Albany honored one of its black citizens, but some things hadn't changed. Alice saw the audience was divided by race - blacks sitting on one side, white on the other. She wasn't invited to speak. Still, as an Olympic champion, Alice always held her head high."
          About 50 years later, she was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame, and named one of the one hundred best athletes in Olympic history. "Her dream was to soar," and she did!
           I was interested to learn that Ann's dedication is not only to her parents, Alice Coachman and her son, Richmond Davis, but also "to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for a generous research grant for this book." Bravo to SCBWI -- my favorite writers' organization!

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