BIOGRAPHY

Kerry Aradhya

Summary: Colorful and playfully illustrated, this biography of Erno Rubik demonstrates how curiosity and passion lead to creations. We learn of Rubik’s fascination with art and architecture and his many failed attempts to build a large cube out of small cubes that could move around and stay connected. The endnotes explain that it wasn’t his intent to create a puzzle at all, and when he played with it and scrambled all the colors, it took him about a month to figure out how to set it right again!

Curricular use: STEM, Multicultural studies (he is Hungarian), themes of perseverance and curiosity.

Minda Dentler

Summary: Born in Mumbai, India, Minda contracted polio as a child. Her loving mother put her up for adoption in hopes of a better life for her daughter. Minda was adopted into a loving, supportive family that was able to provide access to medical care. Most importantly, when she struggled, she was encouraged to “Just figure it out.” As an adult, she was introduced to a handcycle, which started her on a trajectory of trials and triumphs. She became the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the Ironman World Championship course!

Curricular use: Theme of perseverance, healthcare access, exceptional persons. Endnotes provide information about polio vaccines and adaptive equipment for people with physical disabilities (STEM). 

Gary Golio

Summary: What an incredible story! Rather than focusing on his poetry, this is an account of Walt’s humanity. Walt made a journey to visit his brother in a Virginia Union Army hospital during the Civil War.  Astounded by what he saw, he decided to stay. He visited injured soldiers, bringing gifts, reading to them, and helping write letters to loved ones. He held their hands to comfort them as they died. Endnotes state that he may have visited as many as 25,000 soldiers! A beautiful tribute that demonstrates the incredible power of one person’s life on others.

Curricular use: Would be an excellent book for a morning meeting and would also be of interest to Guidance counselors. This book empowers all to use compassion as a tool against hatred/division.

Sharon Mentyka

Summary: Growing up in Tacoma, Washington, Dale walked beaches and collected sea glass and shells. His fascination with light and color became even greater when he saw stained glass in European cathedrals after college. After Europe, while visiting Israel, he learned the joy of working in a collaborative environment (kibbutz). All of these influences led him to a career in creative, colorful, collaborative art in the medium of glass blowing. His work is displayed in over 200 museums around the world, and one of his chandeliers is found in Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa!

Curricular use: Art. Any time our ICCSD students are going to Voxman, this book would give them background on one of the awe-inspiring artworks they will see. Perseverance is a prominent theme; Dale lost his brother and father when young and lost an eye as an adult.

The text is easy to understand but fairly lengthy.   

Ying Chang Compestine

Summary: Growing up under Mao Zedong during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Ying witnessed her father, a physician, being dragged from their home and taken to prison. A leader of the Red Guard, who had moved himself into her father’s study, was the one who dragged her father from their home, and he continued living there after her father was imprisoned! She lived through food shortages, rationing, and watching her mother’s stamina wear thin. Compestine’s memoir describes the fears and sacrifices that marked this time in Chinese history, and Xinmei Liu’s illustrations perfectly capture the emotional toll of the experiences.

Curricular use: This book addresses multiple standards in the K-12 Iowa Core in Social Studies. It illustrates life under a dictator and can be compared to dictatorships in other times and geographical locations.

Lesa Cline-Ransome

Summary: Beginning with his childhood in a loving family, readers are led through events and observations Lewis made that shaped him into the nonviolent civil rights leader that he was. As historical events and attitudes are described throughout the text, readers come to a thorough understanding of how he lived his philosophy of conquering hateful, racist attitudes and violence through love and peaceful action. Though other civil rights activists such as MLK are noted, Lewis is shown as a pillar of strength in his own right, always working in conjunction with others. 

Curricular use: This book checks off multiple standards in the K-12 Iowa Core in Social Studies. It is an excellent depiction of Civil Rights Era actions and philosophies and provides context for the era in a clear, magnificently illustrated text that is supplemented with an author’s note and timeline. 

Summary: Bilqis’s love of basketball begins in her home, playing against her brothers from age 3. At age 12, she dons her mom’s favorite hijab and announces, “I’m gonna go play hoops.” For the first time, she is ridiculed for wearing a headscarf, which she dismisses with grace. This sets the stage for future encounters with discrimination in high school basketball and beyond and allows readers to see how she responds with dignity every time.  When Bilqis decides to go pro, she is told she can’t play in FIBA (International Basketball Federation) with a hijab. She makes the decision to be true to her faith and devotes herself to advocating for Muslim women and all girls in sports. An author’s note gives more details about her advocacy and her continuing influence today. Thanks to the efforts of Bilqis and many others, headscarves are now allowed in the FIBA (International Basketball Federation).

Curricular use: A central message of this book is to be true to yourself and to advocate for yourself and others. It can be used as a vehicle to talk about discrimination and the need to understand, appreciate, and respect people of all cultures. 

Summary: Referencing the familiar opening to all court proceedings, “All rise,” Weatherford uses the refrain “She rose” or “Ketanji rose” to highlight both the obstacles and the achievements of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s life. Because of adults who believed in her, and in spite of those who doubted her, readers see how Ketanji has always realized her goals and dreams. The author’s letter to her own granddaughter, a timeline, and endpaper illustrations of a young Ketanji in the front and a grown Ketanji in the back all add to the overall success of the book.

Curricular use: Before I read this with a 4th grade class, I showed them formal portraits of the US Supreme Court from the year I was born through today, skipping 10 years or so each time. They were fascinated when they noticed the first woman, the first Black person, the first person who looked rather young in comparison, the first Hispanic American, and they cheered when they saw Ketanji Brown Jackson! It was a mini-lesson on how long it takes (and we’re still not there!) to be truly inclusive and representative in our judicial system.

Summary: This book tells the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, who lived his entire (albeit brief) life in total fascination with numbers. He saw patterns and solutions that no one else could see. As a child in British-ruled India, his prodigy became quickly apparent. However, he was so entranced by mathematical concepts that he failed his college entrance exams in every other subject! He eventually caught the attention of a professor in England, and Srinivasa moved to pursue higher math instruction and collaboration at Trinity College, Cambridge. As a devout Hindu and Indian, assimilation into a new culture was very challenging, including his vegetarian needs and the cool, damp climate. His health was poor, and he died in 1920 at age 32. The author’s note at the end details her travels while she prepared to write this book and explains why she felt so compelled to do so. There is a glossary and several accessible examples of number patterns for students to ponder.

Curricular use: I was amazed how much my 3rd grade students enjoyed this book! There are several anecdotes about Srinivasa’s experiences that the students found amusing, and they were really pumped up about the mathematical patterns in the end notes. They also found it amazing that this man was able to calculate the length of the equator with no calculators or computers and he was only off by about 3 km! 

Summary: Since the early 1960s, Virginia Apgar’s importance has been felt by most of us in our first few moments of life! Before her influence, there was a much higher infant mortality rate. Virginia, who got in on the ground floor of anesthesia, realized in her early practice delivering anesthesia to mothers during childbirth, that doctors were so focused on the mother’s health and safety during delivery that babies were dying unnecessarily. Using her training in anesthesia, she came up with a list of 5 characteristics of a newborn child that could be quickly assessed to guide life-saving interventions for newborns. These characteristics were eventually called the APGAR score: Appearance (color), Pulse, Grimace (does the baby have active reflexes), Activity, and Respiration. The illustrations in this book perfectly compliment the descriptions of Virginia Apgar as being a vivacious, eccentric, determined individual who overcame challenges of sexism, money, and timing to become a doctor who is still saving lives long after her days on Earth.

Curricular use: This treasure has engaging text, enjoyable and multicultural illustrations, and an immediate relevance to our students. It fits well in STEM curriculum and would pair well with Boardwalk Babies by Marissa Moss.

Summary: Katalin Kariko spent nearly 30 years of her life trying to determine how to get mRNAs (that carry DNA messages to cells) to teach human cells how to fight off diseases or perhaps not get sick at all. After thousands of failures, Kati and her associate Drew Weissman made it work! The narrative details significant accomplishments and setbacks in Kati’s path, ending with her (and David’s) success in creating a COVID19 vaccine just hours after learning the DNA code of the coronavirus. The book doesn’t end with this achievement, rather it leaves the reader with an open question on what else this technology may be able to do as scientists continue to unlock its potential. 

Curricular use: This book helps the reader understand the process of creating a vaccine, which is a fascinating STEM topic. It also explains how this process was done so quickly during the pandemic using mRNA technology. In a time when some people are still skeptical about the covid vaccine, this book is an absolute necessity!

Summary: This book distinguishes itself from other books about Civil Rights leaders because the subject is an incredible but relatively unknown leader, Diane Nash. The text helps us understand just how influential Diane was while clearly illustrating that she had two “barriers” to rise above: she was both Black and female. A huge strength of this book is the Author’s Note, which shares details of Diane’s endeavors that were never recognized publicly because she was female: she convinced MLK, John Lewis and others to march from Selma to Montgomery to promote voting rights; she traveled to North Vietnam and met with their president to talk about peace and had her passport seized by the US government when she returned; she went to jail as a pregnant woman and wrote a letter to the world explaining why she refused to post bail instead. A truly remarkable woman! Bryan Collier’s multi-layered and multimedia illustrations are another aspect to appreciate in this book.

Curricular use: This book is a perfect fit for both Civil Rights and Women’s Rights education. The timeline at the back recounts a number of significant events, both in the narrative and not. The author’s note provides more in-depth information about events from the main text and the timeline. 

GOOD BOOKS FOR BAD CHILDREN: THE GENIUS OF URSULA NORDSTROM

Beth Kephart 

DOOR BY DOOR: HOW SARAH MCBRIDE BECAME AMERICA'S FIRST OPENLY TRANSGENDER SENATOR

Meeg Pincus

ELLEN TAKES FLIGHT: THE LIFE OF ASTRONAUT ELLEN OCHOA

Doreen Rappaport 

WONDERFUL HAIR: THE BEAUTY OF ANNIE MALONE
Eve Nadel Catarevas

PHENOMENAL AOC: THE ROOTS AND RISE OF ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
Anika Aldamuy Denise

LISTEN: HOW EVELYN GLENNIE, A DEAF GIRL, CHANGED PERCUSSION
Shannon Stocker

PREVIEW 

4-6 : Students intrigued by Hamilton would enjoy this book. It will also increase understanding of the Revolutionary War.

4-6 : A beautiful picture book biography about the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin and how she fought for respect throughout her life.
(from the publisher)

PREVIEW

4-6 : Here's the inspiring story of the woman who raised her voice and fist to protect kids' childhoods and futures-- and changed America forever.  (from the publisher)
Pair this book with the Let the Children March or other Children’s March information to show that history does indeed repeat itself. 

PREVIEW

K-3 : This big, beautiful biography of Keith Haring includes illustrations that encapsulate the iconic American artist's work and life.
(from School Library Journal)

K-3 : The story of Helen Martini's care for lion and tiger cubs, and her emergence as the Bronx Zoo's first woman zookeeper.
(from the publisher)

PREVIEW