Results by title
9 books match the query 'Girls & Women'
Brave Black Women
From Slavery to the Space ShuttleBy Ruthe Winegarten and Sharon Kahn
University of Texas Press, 1997
Brave black women have played important roles in American history. Before the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, black women bore the bonds of slavery with courage and strength. Since Emancipation, black women have supported schools, churches, and civic organizations, entered many professions, and helped to build strong communities. This book dramatizes their impressive story and celebrates their achievements.
Writing especially for students in grades four through eight, Ruthe Winegarten and Sharon Kahn trace the history of black women from slavery until today. Their story includes many heroines, from Emily Morgan, "the Yellow Rose of Texas," to pioneer aviator Bessie Coleman, astronaut Mae Jemison, opera singer Barbara Conrad, actresses Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen, and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, whose life story forms the final chapter.
In addition to these famous black women, the book also profiles teachers, businesswomen, civil rights leaders, community activists, doctors, nurses, athletes, musicians, artists, and political leaders. Adapted from the award-winning Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph, it will be fascinating reading for children and their parents and grandparents, teachers, and librarians.
Camp Nine
A NovelVivienne Schiffer
University of Arkansas Press, 2011
Celia in the Revolution
Elena Fortún
Swan Isle Press, 2023
Set during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), Celia in the Revolution is the last in a series of young adult novels written by Encarnación Aragoneses, known by the pen name Elena Fortún, one of the most prolific and popular Spanish authors of the mid-twentieth century.
In a series of more than twenty novels, Fortún’s protagonist is Celia Gálvez de Montalbán, a precocious and rebellious girl from an affluent family who’s not afraid to question authority and dream, and that often gets her into trouble. Readers watch her grow from age seven through adolescence to the threshold of womanhood at seventeen, which is her age in this dark, inspiring novel about the war that changed Spain.
In this last narrative in the legendary series, Celia has an awakening that not even her lively imagination could have anticipated. The once carefree, innocent child prone to playful fantasies must suddenly confront a world that’s utterly changed, finding herself amid a bloody conflict, la Guerra Civil. Celia, now a madrecita, a little mother to her two younger sisters since the death of their mother, is forced into a life of hardship, a world of hunger, witness to violence, executions, bombing raids, and death. With Celia’s sorrows come her courageous and profound compassion, consoling and caring for virtually every war victim that crosses her path, no matter their political inclinations, and no matter all that Celia must contend with herself. Celia, despite all her travails, manages to survive with determination, defiance, and dignity.
Written immediately after the war, Celia in the Revolution was not published during Elena Fortún’s lifetime, until after the death of the dictator, Francisco Franco, due to censorship. This first major English translation by eminent scholar and Hispanist Michael Ugarte captures the narrative and nuances of Celia’s voice and others in this character-rich novel, and fellow eminent scholar and Hispanist Nuria Capdevila-Arguëlles’s preface brings powerful insights into this remarkable work by Elena Fortún that transcends young adult literature.
Enchantment Lake
A Northwoods MysteryMargi Preus
University of Minnesota Press, 2017
Midwest Book Award Winner — Young Adult Fiction
A disturbing call from her great aunts Astrid and Jeannette sends seventeen-year-old Francie far from her new home in New York into a tangle of mysteries. Ditching an audition in a Manhattan theater, Francie travels to a remote lake in the northwoods where her aunts’ neighbors are “dropping like flies” from strange accidents. But are they accidents?
On the shores of Enchantment Lake in the woods of northern Minnesota, something ominous is afoot, and as Francie begins to investigate, the mysteries multiply: a poisoned hotdish, a puzzling confession, eerie noises in the bog, and a legendary treasure said to be under enchantment—or is that under Enchantment, as in under the lake? At the center of everything is a suddenly booming business in cabin sales and a road not everyone wants built.
To a somewhat reluctant northwoods Nancy Drew, the intrigue proves irresistible, especially when it draws her closer to the mysteries at the heart of her own life. What happened to her father? Who and where is her mother? Who is she, and where does her heart lie—in the bustle of New York City or the deep woods of Minnesota? With its gripping story, romantic spirit, and a sly dash of modern-day trouble (including evil realtors and other invasive species), Enchantment Lake will fascinate readers, providing precisely the charm that Margi Preus’s fans have come to expect.
Further Adventures of the Boo Baby Girl
Jim May
Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2018
The first adventure she has is rescuing Bootsie, The Cattle-hearding Chiahuahua. Bootsie has been kicked by a cow and is bleeding. Boo has some band aids in her pack – this pack will be like Bill Lepp’s magical Swiss Army Knife, containing everything from sophisticated medical supplies, to lasers, to time machines, and, of course her pacifier, which she affectionately calls her “suckie.”
She saves Bootsie, who is bilingual. He thanks her in Spanish: “Muchas Gracias mi muchacha.” She does not understand so not only do they have adventures for the rest of the book but he teaches her some fun Spanish phrases like: NO TOQUEZ NADA (Don’t Touch!) if someone is bothering them. Their main job is to face ghosts, and monsters, demons: boogies, the boo hag, banshees, and . . .
Joyce Westerman
Baseball HeroBob Kann
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012
Joyce Westerman grew up on a farm in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. As a kid, she cleaned the barn, picked vegetables, and helped her father cut down trees. But what she really loved to do was play baseball. Joyce played ball at recess and with friends whenever she could. She even joined her aunt’s adult softball team when she was only twelve.
As Joyce got older, she went to work at a factory in Kenosha. But when World War II broke out, she got a chance to try out for the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Women from all over the country signed up to show off their skills. Only a few were good enough, and Joyce was one of them. For eight years, Joyce travelled around the United Stated playing ball, winning the league championship in her last season.
This addition to the Badger Biographies series for young readers tells the story of a woman who lived her dream of becoming a professional athlete. In a time when women had few opportunities for careers, and next to none in professional sports, Joyce and her teammates showed that women have what it takes.
My Sugar Beet Summer
Rachael Elisa Moreno
Michigan State University Press, 2026
In 1928, nine-year-old Teresa leaves everything she knows in San Antonio—including her beloved cat Diamante—and boards a train bound for Michigan, where her parents have found work in the vast sugar beet fields of Saginaw. The long train north is a source of fascination, but stepping into Michigan feels like entering a different world—the cold wind, the strange houses, and the long days helping on the farm instead of going to school. Teresa cares for her little sisters while her parents tend to the sugar beets. She learns to navigate a life shaped by hard work, migration, and constant change. After the harvest, a new season begins, and the whole family must pack up and make the long trip back to Texas, to plant new roots. Based on the stories the author’s grandparents told her about their lives as Texas migrants in Michigan’s Thumb, My Sugar Beet Summer pulls the reader into Teresa and her family’s life in a new land, on a sugar beet farm on the eve of the Great Depression.
Silent Observer
Christy MacKinnon
Gallaudet University Press, 1993
Silent Observer is an affectionate, poignant memoir of childhood as seen through the eyes of a vivacious young girl. Teachers, parents, and children will share in their enjoyment of this beautiful, sensitive story of a harder but wonderful time that has passed.
The Clue in the Trees
An Enchantment Lake MysteryMargi Preus
University of Minnesota Press, 2019
Francie returns to Enchantment Lake looking for answers, only to get dragged into a murder mystery she might not survive
Francie’s brother Theo has secrets—secrets Francie thinks she wants to know. But what if one of those secrets is that Theo is a murderer? To avoid considering that possibility, Francie plunges into her senior year at a small-town high school near Enchantment Lake in northern Minnesota. It’s a radical change from her private school in New York, but she hopes to keep an eye on her great aunts and maybe finally learn more about the mother she never knew. A small silver box seems to hold the answers, and she is determined to get her hands on it.
But when her long-lost brother turns up, so does a dead body, and once again Francie is drawn into a mystery. A long list of suspects, with Theo at the top, keeps her head spinning. When Francie herself becomes a suspect she starts to feel like she is walking on thin ice, but it isn’t until she is literally walking on thin ice that the pieces start to come together—and by then it may be too late.
In her previous adventure Enchantment Lake, Francie was thrown into northern Minnesota lake living: fishing, berry picking, lost kayaks and scary boat rides, poisoned hotdishes, exploding bulldozers, a forest fire . . . and murder. But if she thinks things have settled down, she’s in for a surprise. A new school with new friends (and a few enemies), a lead role in a play, an encounter with a giant muskie, archaeological twists, secret tunnels, thin ice, and a strangely sticky murder are all coming her way in The Clue in the Trees.