Gender Equality Bookstore
Children's books to foster equality

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I had never heard of Rose O’Neill before picking up this book, although I was familiar with “kewpies,” her most famous creation.

Rose O’Neill was a commercial illustrator and comic artist in the early 1900s, at a time when most commercial illustrators were men.

This children’s biography of Rose O’Neill concentrates on her childhood. Her father was a bookseller who had difficulty supporting his growing family, so Rose and her siblings moved often and lived in small, cramped homes in Nebraska and Missouri. However, the family was happy together. Rose never had formal art lessons: she taught herself to draw by copying illustrations from the stacks of books always around the house. 

When she was 13, one of her drawings won a prize from an Omaha newspaper. At the age of 19, she went to New York City to begin her career as a freelance illustrator for magazines and books. In 1909, when she was 35, she created the first kewpie character for Ladies Home Journal. This character proved so popular that Rose wrote and illustrated weekly kewpie stories and cartoons, and oversaw the manufacture of a kewpie doll.

Rose’s wealth allowed her to support her parents and siblings. Rose worked for the right of women to vote, and she mentored young artists.

This 68-page biography is in an oversized 10″ x 12″ format. It is lavishly illustrated with over 100 drawings and photographs. The author, Linda Brewster, skillfully pairs Rose’s adult drawings with the childhood events that may have inspired them. The book is based on Rose’s unpublished memoirs, so the writing comes alive with dialogue and Rose’s memories.

You can buy this book from my girls list.

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This 82-page book contains short biographies of 10 native women from the United States and Canada. Some of the women are fairly well-known, such as Wilma Mankiller (first woman chief of the Cherokees), Winona LaDuke (environmentalist and vice presidential candidate), and Maria Tallchief (ballerina for the New York City ballet). Others I had never heard of, such as Suzanne Rochon-Burnett, a Canadian radio broadcaster, and Lorna Williams, an educator who developed a native-centric curriculum.

I enjoyed reading the stories of all of these women. The author describes the challenges these women faced as well as their triumphs. I learned that Pauline Johnson-Tekahionwake, a poet and performer, had written down legends told to her by Chief Capilano of Vancouver, British Columbia. These are collected in a book called Legends of Vancouver, first published in 1910. I was able to request this book from my library to read to my kids. I also learned about Susan Aglukark, an Inuit singer who has won 3 Juno awards (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy award). I’m glad to know about a new singer I might like to listen to. 

This book is part of the Native Trailblazers series from Book Publishing Company in Summertown, Tennessee. You can buy this from my Girls list.