March 31, 2017 Hello , This week brought a change of pace, as I turned back to the WWII POW nurses, preparing my keynote for the
Pediatric Endocrine Nurses Association conference later this month.
I'm putting together a new presentation based on my book Pure Grit. It's called Grit Arises in the Darkest Places.
Coincidentally, I discovered some new information about one of the nurses, new to me anyway. See more in the Links & News section below.
Now, here's a terrific book for youngsters in your life!
Disagreement ≠ Disagreeable |
I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark, by Debbie Levy has a list of tributes and prizes as long as my arm. It's a Booklist Editors’ Choice, NCTE Orbis Pictus honor book, on the New York Public Library Best Books for Kids, and more.
I'm in awe of how the author put so much information into forty illustrated pages, included humor, making Ruth so human, and
tying it all together seamlessly.
The process of writing a beautiful, succinct, powerful picture book is hidden. It appears effortless. It's not. Believe me. I've tried it.
Author Debbie Levy kindly agreed to an interview, and I asked her to share some part, perhaps a crucial step in the process of how she distilled the story of Ruth Bader
Ginsburg becoming a Supreme Court Justice in a way that would interest kids. Debbie Levy: Early on in my research, I realized my theme: that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life has been one disagreement after another. I found that she’d been disagreeing with
unfairness and discrimination and injustice from the time she was a young girl.
So this theme—that disagreeing doesn’t make you disagreeable and that important change can happen one disagreement after another—was the crucial step in the process of writing this book.
There is a variation on the “I dissent” theme on nearly every spread in the book.
“She protested” (as a schoolgirl, to being required to write with her right hand even though she is left-handed). (Debbie Levy photo above) On a car trip with her parents as a girl, Ruth saw a sign that said "NO Dogs, or Jews Allowed." She disagreed. And she never forget the sting of
prejudice.
A young girl dresses up like RBG. Debbie Levy: “Ruth objected” (also in school, to the rule that required girls to take home ec, reserving shop class for boys).
“Ruth disapproved right back” (when people disapproved of her decision to go to law school).
“She resisted. And persisted” (when, as a young law school graduate at the top of her class, no one would hire her because she was a woman, a mother, and a Jew). And so on.
The tone is enhanced—and I love this—by Elizabeth
Baddeley’s large and emphatic hand lettering of these “dissenting” refrains. Mary: One of the most powerful parts of the book for me comes near the end, when the character some might call Ruth's nemesis comes into the story. The illustration shows RBG arguing with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Then on the next page the two
justices are parasailing together in France, then riding an elephant like BFF in India.
That inspires me. And challenges me. How can we get along better with people we disagree with?
Debbie Levy: One lesson is to listen: to listen, really listen, to what people on the other side of an argument have to say.
Before his death last year, Justice Scalia was the Supreme Court justice with whom RBG most frequently, and deeply, disagreed. But they neither shouted past each other nor ignored each other. Instead, they shared their
conflicting ideas. (Photo of the two Justices courtesy NPR) They pointed out weaknesses in the other’s arguments. Justice Ginsburg has explained how this helped her: “Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots—the ‘applesauce’ and ‘argle bargle’—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen . . . [my] opinion.”
The takeaway here: take advantage of a good adversary’s critique.
Hey, Everybody, I'd love to hear from you on this. I'm feeling challenged to talk with people I disagree with, but mostly I don't, because I'm holed up all day alone at my computer. Well, I did go out and try to talk to my Congresswoman, but she wasn't taking visitors. I'll try again. What about you? Tell me something good. Back to the WWII POW Nurses....
Under this headline about two war victims, was the news that Army Nurse Rose Rieper had been officially listed by the War Department as missing in action in the Philippines. Capt. Wirtz was also missing.
The article and photo from the St. Louis Dispatch, published June 6, 1942,
says “Last word from her was received April 11….Lieut. Rieper said in a radio gram then that she was ‘well and happy.'
In an earlier letter written February 5, 1942 and received April 1, 1942, Rose wrote she was stationed at a field hospital in the wood, doing laundry and bathing in a stream, at night “We sit and look at the stars.”
Rose Rieper was one of the 77 army and navy nurses held captive by the Japanese for three years before they were liberated by American forces in 1945.
Thanks to archivist Caitlin Crane at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis for her post on the topic here... If you haven't read Pure Grit: How American WWII Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific, check it out here...
Great news this week for Irena's Children! It's been named to the annual best-of-the-year list put out by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Wow, to be in such great company! I noticed several books from last year that I loved on the list including The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos, Salt to the Sea
by Ruta Sepetys and The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon. If you like YA fiction, them out.
For the list of all titles chosen for CCBC Choices 2017 click
here...
Have a good weekend! Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know.
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