In the mid-nineteenth century, most women who weren't raising families became teachers or nurses. But Clara Driscoll longed to be an artist, drawing inspiration from nature: from every flower, weed, dragonfly, and even cobweb, on her family's farm.

In 1888, Clara was hired at the renowned Tiffany Glass Company, where Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany was known for creating gorgeous stained-glass windows for churches, theaters, and libraries. Impressed by her talent at choosing and cutting glass, Mr. Tiffany eventually put Clara in charge of her own staff of 35 women designers.

These Tiffany Girls sketched intricate patterns, chose dazzling colors and precise shapes, and carefully soldered and placed each piece of glass to create stunning lamps, murals, windows, vases, and clocks. Yet their names weren't always credited on the finished pieces, and when Clara designed the Wisteria lamp that would become Tiffany Studios' most famous, everyone assumed that Mr. Tiffany had designed it.

Today, Clara Driscoll's work lives on in museums, galleries, and private collections around the world. Dragonflies of Glass celebrates the innovation, determination, and ambition of the unsung women behind many of Tiffany Studios' masterpieces.

Includes a list of places where Driscoll's Tiffany art can be found; examples of Driscoll's Tiffany lamps and archival photographs; endnotes; and a bibliography.

In the rural community of Gee's Bend, African American women have been making quilts for generations. They use scraps of old overalls, aprons, and bleached cornmeal sacks--anything they can find. Their traditions have been passed down through the decades. Much to the women's surprise, a selection of the quilts was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2002. The exhibition then traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York City. Eye-poppingly gorgeous, wrote a critic for the New York Times about the exhibition. He continued, Some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.

Rubin is known for producing well-researched, highly praised, and sophisticated biographies of artists and other important figures. Through similar research, The Quilts of Gee's Bend shares specifics about this rare community and its rich traditions, allowing children to pause to consider history through the eyes of the people who lived it and through a legacy that is passed on to the next generation.

This book should be of great interest to classrooms, libraries, and those interested in African American art in the United States, in addition to quilting, life in early emancipated colonies in the South, and Gee's Bends importance in the Civil Rights movement. The quilts and the incredible stories behind them are powerful motivators for anyone who wishes to accomplish anything. A map, directions on how to make a quilt square, endnotes, and an index round out this stunning nonfiction book.

Jacob Lawrence's exuberant artwork guides readers through a bustling city, complete with builders rat-a-tatting and children playing in the streets. With rhythmic text and 11 iconic paintings, this book is both an introduction to an influential artist and a celebration of city life.

While recent phenomena like #OscarsSoWhite have reminded us that Hollywood can be an unfriendly place to people of color and to women, they have been an integral part of the industry from the beginning. In the early twentieth century, women from all walks of life fought against sexism and racism to succeed in Hollywood as actors, directors, costume designers, editors, and stunt women. From well-known, glamorous starlets like Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, to under-appreciated trailblazers like Anna May Wong and Hattie McDaniel, acclaimed author Susan Goldman Rubin shows that movies wouldn't be the same without the women who succeeded against the odds and built Hollywood from the ground up. Filled with fascinating photographs and little-known facts, this rigorously researched book begins with a foreword by Ruth E Carter, who won Academy Awards in 2019 and 2023 for her work on Marvel Studios' Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

For over 200 years, people have marched, gone to jail, risked their lives, and even died trying to get the right to vote in the United States. Others, hungry to acquire or hold onto power, have gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent people from casting ballets or outright stolen votes and sometimes entire elections.

Perfect for students who want to know more about voting rights, this nonfiction book contains an extensive view of suffrage from the Founding Fathers to the 19th Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to today's voter suppression controversies, and explains the barriers people of color, Indigenous people, and immigrants face. Back matter includes a bibliography, source notes, texts of the Constitution and amendments, a timeline, and an index.

A Junior Library Guild Selection
Selected for the CBC Champions of Change Showcase
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year!

An inspiring, uplifting picture book biography about iconic doll creator, Madame Alexander, whose love for dolls and bringing joy to others began at a young age and only continued to grow.

Someday, she thought, I will make dolls that don't break so children will never be unhappy.

Beatrice Alexander's family ran a doll hospital in their home in New York's Lower East Side, where she grew to love fixing and making dolls. Beatrice dreamed of becoming an artist, but her family couldn't afford to send her to sculpting school. She never stopped dreaming, even as she stayed home, graduated from high school, and got married. When World War I broke out, she came up with the idea to make unbreakable, cloth dolls modeled after nurses to support the war effort and help keep children happy. After the war, Beatrice founded Madame Alexander and redefined the doll industry, creating some of the first plastic and collectible dolls, dolls that never break.

With beautiful, vivid art by Sarah Dvojack, author Susan Goldman Rubin tells the powerful story of savvy, feminist entrepreneur Beatrice Alexander, who founded the Madame Alexander Doll Company and became one of America's most celebrated toy makers.

Beginning with the difficult years Chanel spent in an orphanage, Goldman Rubin traces Coco's development as a designer and demonstrates how her determination to be independent helped her gain worldwide recognition. Coco Chanel: Pearls, Perfume, and the Little Black Dress focuses on the obstacles Chanel faced as a financially independent woman in an era when women were expected to marry; as well as her fierce competition with the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli; and some of her most memorable firsts for the fashion industry, including the little black dress, the quilted purse with gold chain, and the perfume Chanel No. 5.

Rubin's biography is clear-sighted about Chanel's faults while extolling her fashion genius. Her source notes and bibliography are meticulous, as is the book's design . . . This will attract young fashion mavens eager to learn about design history. --Booklist

Includes color and black-and-white photographs, a bibliography, a list of where to see her work, and an index.

Mary Seacole spent much of her life on the front lines of the Crimean War, ministering to the wounded, caring for soldiers, and making her mark on the world of medicine. This fascinating biography honors Mary Seacole's life, from her childhood in Kingston, Jamaica, and her encounters with racist Americans to her treatment of cholera patients in Panama and her bitter run-in with Florence Nightingale, who declined to work with her in Crimea because she wasn't white. But Mary Seacole knew that the sick and wounded needed her compassion and care, and despite all obstacles, she answered the call to help them. Author Susan Goldman Rubin gives voice to this fearless nurse and healer through captivating details drawn from Mary Seacole's own writings, while debut illustrator Richie Pope vividly captures her service at the bedside and on the battlefield. Inspiring and engaging, this biography introduces a compelling heroine who rose above barriers to earn a place in history.

Praise for Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People
STARRED REVIEWS
With engaging prose that is beautifully illustrated with Diego Rivera's paintings and murals, this spacious volume introduces the great Mexican artist to young people. Accompanied by crisply reproduced color images of both the bright, minutely detailed murals as well as archival photos of the artist at work, the accessible account discusses how Diego constructed his art...
--Booklist, starred review

The stunning illustrations include images of Rivera's murals, his cartoon drawings, reproductions of art that he found influential, and photographs. The design, with scrollwork along the top and bottom and an unusual placement of page numbers, exudes style. The text is clearly written, straightforward, and attention-grabbing, with a good number of quotes interspersed throughout.
--School Library Journal, starred review

A carefully researched, cogently argued and handsomely produced appreciation.
--Kirkus Reviews

There is life to these pages, and breadth to its subject. Short enough to reward a wary reader but with enough context and clarity to bring Diego to life, Rubin takes a tricky guy for kids to know about and makes him precisely what he was: bigger than life.
--School Library Journal, Fuse 8 Blog

Enhanced by gorgeously reproduced photos and artwork, Rubin's account follows the Mexican artist from his early drawings -- as a small child, he was given free rein in a room covered with black canvas as high as he could reach -- through his eventful, productive life.
--The Washington Post

Rubin traces Rivera's life from his emergent boyhood talent, through the formal studio education that left him restless and professionally unsatisfied, to realizing his calling to create massive public artworks for the common people, celebrating the dignity of their labor.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Award
School Library Journal Best Book of 2013
Best Multicultural Children's Books 2013 (Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature)
Notable Children's Books from ALSC 2014
Notable Books for a Global Society Book Award 2014

In 1954, one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the twentieth Century aimed to end school segregation in the United States. The ruling was the culmination of work by many people who stood up to racial inequality, some risking significant danger and hardship, and of careful strategizing by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin tells the stories behind the ruling and the people responsible for it. Illustrated with historical photographs, this well-researched narrative account is a perfect introduction to the history of school segregation in the United States and the long struggle to end it. An epilogue looks at the far-reaching effects of this landmark decision, and shows how our country still grapples today with a public school system not yet fully desegregated.

Detailed backmatter includes a timeline, primary source texts, and summaries of all mentioned court cases.

An ALA Notable Children's Book
A Patterson Prize Honor Book
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

Shocking pink--hot pink, as it is called today--was the signature color of Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) and perhaps her greatest contribution to the fashion world.

Schiaparelli was one of the most innovative designers in the early 20th century. Many design elements that are taken for granted today she created and brought to the forefront of fashion. She is credited with many firsts: trompe l'oeil sweaters with collars and bows knitted in; wedge heels; shoulder bags; and even the concept of a runway show for presenting collections.

Susan G. Rubin's Hot Pink explores Schiaparelli's childhood in Rome, her introduction to high fashion in Paris, and her swift rise to success collaborating with surrealist and cubist artists like Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. The book includes an author's note, a list of museums and websites where you can find Schiaparelli's fashions, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

In 1954, one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the twentieth Century aimed to end school segregation in the United States. The ruling was the culmination of work by many people who stood up to racial inequality, some risking significant danger and hardship, and of careful strategizing by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin tells the stories behind the ruling and the people responsible for it. Illustrated with historical photographs, this well-researched narrative account is a perfect introduction to the history of school segregation in the United States and the long struggle to end it. An epilogue looks at the far-reaching effects of this landmark decision, and shows how our country still grapples today with a public school system not yet fully desegregated.

Detailed backmatter includes a timeline, primary source texts, and summaries of all mentioned court cases.

An ALA Notable Children's Book
A Patterson Prize Honor Book
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

When faced with the decision to remain silent or be ostracized, Paul Robeson chose to sing, shout, and speak out. Sing and Shout: The Mighty Voice of Paul Robeson explores how Robeson's love of African American spirituals and deep empathy towards the suffering of others drove his long, fervent mission as a civil rights activist and his career as an artist. Although he was also an actor, singing was Robeson's defining talent and where he could best express himself. After exploring socialism, Robeson was targeted by the U.S. government for speaking out about discrimination against African Americans and for his political views. He was labeled a communist during the height of the Cold War and found himself stripped of his U.S. passport. But Robeson never gave in and continued to perform and speak out. The book is based on author Susan Goldman Rubin's extensive research, including fieldwork in Harlem, NY, in Princeton and Somerville, NJ, and at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Includes an author's note, resources, source notes, index, and a preface by author Harry Belafonte.

For over 200 years, people have marched, risked their lives, and even died trying to get the right to vote in the United States. Others, hungry to acquire or hold onto power, have gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent people from casting ballets or outright stolen votes and sometimes entire elections.

Perfect for students who want to know more about voting rights, this nonfiction book contains an extensive view of suffrage from the Founding Fathers to the 19th Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to today's voter suppression controversies, and explains the barriers people of color, Indigenous people, and immigrants face. Back matter includes a bibliography, source notes, texts of the Constitution and amendments, a timeline, and an index.

A Junior Library Guild Selection
Selected for the CBC Champions of Change Showcase

Testing a bold new strategy, they recruited students from across the United States. That summer these young volunteers defied segregation by living with local black hosts, opening Freedom Schools to educate disenfranchised adults and their children, and canvassing door-to-door to register voters.

Everyone involved knew there would be risks but were nonetheless shocked when three civil rights workers disappeared and were soon presumed murdered. The organizers' worst fears were realized as volunteers, local activists, and hosts faced terror on a daily basis. Yet by the middle of August, incredible strides had been made in spite of the vicious intimidation. The summer unleashed an unstoppable wave of determination from black Mississippians to demand their rights and helped bring about a new political order in the American South.

Fifty years after this landmark civil rights project in Mississippi, an award-winning author offers a riveting account of events that stunned the nation. Includes over 75 photographs, drawings, original documents, a timeline, source notes, bibliography, maps, and an index.

Testing a bold new strategy, they recruited students from across the United States. That summer these young volunteers defied segregation by living with local black hosts, opening Freedom Schools to educate disenfranchised adults and their children, and canvassing door-to-door to register voters.

Everyone involved knew there would be risks but were nonetheless shocked when three civil rights workers disappeared and were soon presumed murdered. The organizers' worst fears were realized as volunteers, local activists, and hosts faced terror on a daily basis. Yet by the middle of August, incredible strides had been made in spite of the vicious intimidation. The summer unleashed an unstoppable wave of determination from black Mississippians to demand their rights and helped bring about a new political order in the American South.

Fifty years after this landmark civil rights project in Mississippi, an award-winning author offers a riveting account of events that stunned the nation. Includes over 75 photographs, drawings, original documents, a timeline, source notes, bibliography, maps, and an index.