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Children’s
Book Reviews
By Selene
Vasquez
A
tribute to remarkable lives for Women’s History Month:
BIOGRAPHY:
Ages 7-10
Prudence
Crandall: Teacher For Equal Rights by Ellen Lucas. Illustrated
by Kimanne Smith (Carolhoda, 48 pp, $21.27) Despite fierce opposition
in 1832, a Quaker teacher battles courageously to preserve the
first school in the United States for African American girls.
Easy-to-read text rendered with realistic full page paintings
that enhance the essential drama of this struggle for equal rights.
Jane
Goodall: the Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours by
Jane Goodall (Scholastic, 32 pp, $17.95). With keen scientific
reporting and deep affection, Goodall offers her unique style
of research into the heart of the animal world. Excellent photos
from 40 years of research at Gombe National Park highlight observations
that are absorbing in their message of compassion for all living
things. This book is an inspiration for all girls interested in
the sciences.
FOLK
TALES: Ages 7-10
Maiden
of the Mist: A Legend of Niagara Falls by Veronika Charles
(Stoddart, 32 pp. $13.95). No longer the submissive girl of European
renditions, Lelawola of the Seneca Tribe is a courageous and outgoing
heroine eager to save her ill stricken people from the mysterious
and threatening horned god snake poisoning the Niagara River.
Steamboat
Annie and The Thousand-Pound Catfish by Catherine Wright.
Illustrated by Howard Fine (Phiomel, 32 pp, $15.99). A tall-tale
heroine of gigantic proportions baits and tackles a hot-tempered
heavyweight of a whiskered catfish. A stomping success of a story
with exaggerated villainous plotting gone awry. #
Selene
S. Vasquez is a media specialist at Orange Brook Elementary School
in Hollywood, Florida. She is formerly a children’s librarian
for the New York Public Library.
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
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