GIRL POWER: In Fact and Fiction

 

Roaring Brook Press, 2022

Two wonderful recent picture books deserve the spotlight today. The first is a well-told, nonfiction account of a young girl-hero of mine, Mary Anning. While teaching I learned SOOOO much about various events and people who have only now, decades later, been appearing in widely distributed trade books. 

My students and I learned about Mary Anning in the ON MY OWN BIOGRAPHY SERIES from Scholastic. (Mary Anning, Fossil Hunter, by Sally M. Walker, 2000). Since then I've read multiple titles about this incredible (and BRAVE) girl/woman/scientist. Even with that background, I feet this latest picture book is a winner: DRAGON BONES:The Fantastic Fossil Discoveries of Mary Anning, is written by Sarah Glenn Marsh and illustrated by Maris Wicks.

In this case the author stays focused on Mary as a young girl, then (briefly) as a young adult. Her life preceding and following these pages is also intriguing and complex, as well as being a story of gender discrimination, the evolution of the theory of evolution, and also the power of the progress of science. But this youthful focus also reveals Mary as an energetic, self-directed , analytical, and entrepreneurial wonder! 

Although Mary and her father and brother were driven by financial need, that reality was less an anchor that locked a poor girl into a life of drudgery than it was a bridge and portal to a world of science. Others who examined her fossils saw them through the ideas of the familiar past, while she viewed them as fantastical treasures, ones connected to the both reality and storytelling, not unlike the constellations overhead. She connected the dots of her discoveries in ways that fostered original thinking and motivated her to search more, dig more, think more. She trusted  her mind and her trusty tools. Spare but effective text pairs with colorfully simple black-lined illustrations to make this version of Mary Anning's life story accessible and entertaining even for young ages. It would be a great addition to a collection of the many biographic titles about Mary Anning now available for comparison reading and to allow readers of any level of confidence to read and engage in discussions.

SCHOLASTIC, 2021

In contrast, LALA'S WORDS: A story of Planting Kindness, is written and illustrated by award-winning Gracey Zhang. It portrays a fictional young girl within a gritty urban setting, but one that adds a touch of magical realism at the end. 

The tagline, planting kindness, is absolutely suited. It could also have been tagged A Story of Urban Ecology, or A Modern Day Environmental Parable, or other references to the transformational power of kindness, yes, but also of accepting differences, of appreciating life in every form, and of fostering "green" resources to combat global warming, especially in urban islands. 

Lala doesn't think or voice any of those understandings, rather she instinctively recognizes LIFE in the stray, asphalt-defying, weedy  growths within a wire-fenced lot, not far from home. The black/white/gray illustrations give a rough-edged, unrefined impression of the mercilessly hot sidewalks, apartments, and the entire neighborhood in which Lala lives her lively days. Her splash of yellow on various pages is the only bright spot on most pages of bill-checking, mess-making, and dirtying up her dress. 

Lala does not water and speak to the plants with a goal in mind, but because they are alive and she recognizes their needs, physical and emotional. To be kept home and prevented from tending to them dims Lala's glow until readers might fear it could go out. It is only when those nurtured greens miss her and seek her out that the canopy they create provides protective shade above her neighborhood, allowing the temperature to drop as Lala's yellow glow spreads from person to person and home to home.

This is a joyful, heartfelt story told in brilliantly simple text and images. Countless kids will identify with Lala, teachers will welcome it for carpet-talks about respect and kindness, while older readers could use this story to launch study of transforming urban settings through green planting to combat social disparities in global warming.

Both books portray enthusiastic and compelling girls whose interests and energy made major changes in a wider world. Give these to girls you know who have that potential-- in other words, ALL girls!