Summer Reading 2023: Lower School

Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Ohio, Toni Morrison grew up listening to her family tell myths, legends, and stories from the Bible. She loved hearing the music and power of the words. Toni also heard new stories from the students from other countries who went to her school. After an early childhood of soaking up tales from those around her, it was no surprise Toni grew into a voracious reader. When it came time for her to write her own stories, she knew she wanted to write about her people--Black people. Early in the morning and late at night after her children were asleep, Toni began work on what would become an acclaimed and trailblazing body of work.

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A picture book biography for older readers about the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son's death into a call to action for the civil rights movement.

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While writing and illustrating the beloved picture book Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey brings a flock of ducklings into his tiny New York City apartment. There are ducklings in the bathtub and ducklings in the kitchen, quacking at dawn and sitting on his desk. Can he learn to draw them just right before they grow too big?

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At four years old, Ria Thundercloud was brought into the powwow circle, ready to dance in the special jingle dress her mother made for her. As she grew up, she danced with her brothers all over Indian country. Then Ria learned more styles--tap, jazz, ballet--but still loved the expressiveness of Indigenous dance. And despite feeling different as one of the only Native American kids in her school, she always knew she could turn to dance to cheer herself up.

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Whether sailing across the ocean, hiking through the jungle, or climbing the highest volcanic peaks, everywhere Alexander went, he observed the land, animals, and culture. And where others saw differences, Alexander spotted connections. Discover the incredible life of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, whose explorations created the basis for modern ecology, whose travels made him one of the most famous scientists of his day, and whose curiosities have inspired generations of creative thinkers.

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Growing up in the 1920s on a dirt-poor farm in North Dakota, Mary Sherman's life was filled with chores--until she finally began school and discovered she loved to learn. Mary excelled at science, especially chemistry, and leaped at the chance to work in a laboratory during World War II designing rocket fuels. And when the US decided to enter the space race, Mary was chosen over her male colleagues to create the fuel to launch a rocket carrying America's first satellite. With courage and perseverance, Mary's hard work and calculations paid off, opening up a brand-new frontier for exploration.

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Milloo lives in a time when school is considered unnecessary for girls. But to Milloo, education is essential. When Milloo reads, her thoughts dance. Milloo courageously dreams of becoming a teacher, but in fifth grade her parents tell her she has had enough school. Milloo is heartbroken but finds a way to achieve her educational goals, graduating high school and college with honors. When she's married, Milloo's husband tells her to stay home, but she does not let that stop her. She decides to open a school in her house and later opens more schools around Karachi, Pakistan, fulfilling her dreams.

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From a young age, Patsy Takemoto Mink learned that striving for goals came with challenges. But she also learned to never give up. As the Japanese proverb says: fall down seven times, stand up eight. That spirit helped Patsy through school. She wanted to become a doctor, but at the time, medical schools didn't admit women. So Patsy carved her own path. She went to law school, ran for a seat in the United States Congress, and helped create Title IX, the law that requires federally funded schools to treat boys and girls equally. Although many people tried to knock her down, Patsy--a historic trailblazer who spent her life fighting for fairness--always got up again!

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Deborah Sampson didn't like being told what to do, especially by the King of England. Fiercely independent, 18-year-old Deborah enlists as Robert Shurtliff in George Washington's Continental Army to fight for her country's independence. But being a soldier is hard, dangerous work. Can she fight for her country and keep her identity a secret? Can she also discover who she really is and find her true purpose?

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As a child in the small mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, Edith Head had few friends and spent most of her time dressing up her toys and pets and even wild animals using fabric scraps. She always knew she wanted to move somewhere full of people and excitement. She set her sights on Hollywood and talked her way into a job sketching costumes for a movie studio. Did she know how to draw or sew costumes? No. But that didn't stop her! Edith taught herself and tirelessly worked her way up until she was dressing some of the biggest stars of the day, from Audrey Hepburn to Grace Kelly to Ginger Rogers. She became the first woman to head a major Hollywood movie studio costume department and went on to win eight Academy Awards for best costume design--and she defined the style of an era.

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Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) began painting her abstract and highly symbolic images as early as 1906, long before Kandinsky and Malevich arrived at what is generally regarded as the birth of modern abstract art. She was heavily influenced by spiritual ideologies and claimed that she painted on instruction from the spirit world, for the future. Until recently overlooked by art historians, she is now lauded around the world.

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Imagine living on a tiny island more than a thousand miles from any other inhabited place! That's where a girl named Mahani lived--on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. Mahani grew up taking music lessons on the island's only piano. She had the talent to become a great pianist, but pursuing that dream meant leaving the home she loved. As Mahani toured the world as an acclaimed concert pianist, Rapa Nui stayed close to her heart. She knew the island struggled with problems like ocean trash and wondered how she could help. So she returned to Rapa Nui with a new dream--to build a music school! The unique building is constructed with recycled trash and has solar panels and a food garden. Now Mahani is helping build a more sustainable future for her island home--where the music continues.

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Julia Child was born hungry, but she was not born a chef. In fact, Julia didn't discover her passion for cooking until she had a life-changing luncheon in France and became determined to share her newfound love of food with everyone.

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Sandor Katz's love of fermented food started with kosher dill pickles he ate as a New York City kid. As an adult, he left the busy city and moved to a queer community in the mountains of Tennessee. There, his friends grew their own food and cooked and ate together. One day, the cabbages were all, ALL ready to be harvested. What to do? Sandor tried to make sauerkraut. Delicious! He kept experimenting, finding old recipes, combining old ideas to make something new. Then, he shared what he learned in bestselling books, in classes, and with a growing group of friends around the world.

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During the Civil War, Clara Barton--one of the first women to receive permission to serve on a battlefield--snuck her supply wagon to the head of a ten-mile wagon train to deliver provisions to the Antietam Battlefield on the bloodiest day in American history.

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Diane grew up in the southside of Chicago in the 1940s. As a university student, she visited the Tennessee State Fair in 1959. Shocked to see a bathroom sign that read For Colored Women, Diane learned that segregation in the South went beyond schools--it was part of daily life. She decided to fight back, not with anger or violence, but with strong words of truth and action. Finding a group of like-minded students, including student preacher John Lewis, Diane took command of the Nashville Movement. They sat at the lunch counters where only white people were allowed and got arrested, day after day. Leading thousands of marchers to the courthouse, Diane convinced the mayor to integrate lunch counters. Then, she took on the Freedom Rides to integrate bus travel, garnering support from Martin Luther King Jr. and then the president himself--John F. Kennedy.

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Maya's momma was right. Maya was a preacher, a teacher. A Black girl whose voice chased away darkness, ushered in light.

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Ida B. Wells was an educator, journalist, feminist, businesswoman, newspaper owner, public speaker, suffragist, civil rights activist, and women's club leader. She was a founder of the NAACP, the National Association of Colored Women, the Alpha Suffrage Club, and the Negro Fellowship League. Born in 1862, Ida challenged the racist and sexist norms of the late nineteenth and early twenthieth centuries through her writing and speaking. Faced with criticism and threats to her life, she never gave up. Long overlooked, Ida's life and work shine in this picture book, timed for the 160th anniversary of her birth.

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Growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain town, little Roberta didn't have fancy clothes or expensive toys...but she did have music. And she dreamed of having her own piano. When her daddy spies an old, beat-up upright piano in a junkyard, he knows he can make his daughter's dream come true. He brings it home, cleans and tunes it, and paints it a grassy green. And soon the little girl has an instrument to practice on, and a new dream to reach for--one that will make her become a legend in the music industry.

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MacNolia Cox was no ordinary kid. Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary. 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.

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In 1882, Marianne North showed the gray city of London paintings of jaw-dropping greenery like they'd never seen before. As a self-taught artist and scientist, Marianne North subverted Victorian gender roles and advanced the field of botanical illustration. Her technique of painting specimens in their natural environment was groundbreaking.

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Eliza Davis believed in speaking up for what was right. Even if it meant telling Charles Dickens he was wrong. In Eliza Davis's day, Charles Dickens was the most celebrated living writer in England. But some of his books reflected a prejudice that was all too common at the time: prejudice against Jewish people. Eliza was Jewish, and her heart hurt to see a Jewish character in Oliver Twist portrayed as ugly and selfish. She wanted to speak out about how unfair that was, even if it meant speaking out against the great man himself. So she wrote a letter to Charles Dickens. What happened next is history.

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Forgotten today, Annie Turnbo Malone was an influential Black business leader in the early 20th century. She turned her personally developed hair care products into a successful industry. One of her students was the much more famous Madame C.J. Walker. She not only encouraged Black women to feel good about their hair, she showed them how to be entrepreneurs.

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The girls and women in the book come from different countries and backgrounds and have a wide array of interests and accomplishments. The book features the work of authors, artists, and editors aged 30 and under.

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Meet 52 Black icons from the past and present.

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