January 2018 - Page 7 of 14

Miguel’s Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote
by Margarita Engle (Author) and Raúl Colón (Illustrator)

Booktalk: This fictionalized first-person free verse biography of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra follows the early years of the child who grows up to pen Don Quixote, the first modern novel. The son of a gambling, vagabond barber-surgeon, Miguel looks to his own imagination for an escape from his family’s troubles and finds comfort in his colorful daydreams. At a time when access to books is limited and imaginative books are considered evil, Miguel is inspired by storytellers and wandering actors who perform during festivals. He longs to tell stories of his own. When Miguel is nineteen, four of his poems are published, launching the career of one of the greatest writers in the Spanish language.

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Bold Women in California History
by Kay Moore (Author)

Booktalk: From Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, to Yoshiko Uchida, Japanese internment camp survivor turned children s author, to Elvira Virginia Mugarrieta, who dressed as a man in order to do things women of the time could not, the thirteen women portrayed in this collection broke down barriers of sexism, racism, and political opposition to emerge as heroines of their time. Whether that meant pushing for change in the state senate, as Rose Ann Vuich did, or escaping slavery and later doing good for the community, as Bridget Biddy Mason did, each and every one of these stories, unique as they are, show ways in which women have created lasting change.

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Tarea Hall Pittman
When the United States entered World War II, many blacks headed to the West Coast to find employment. It is estimated that more than forty-six thousand African-Americans moved to the Bay Area between 1941 and 1945. Tarea not only helped the new arrivals integrate into the local communities, especially Oakland and Richmond, she also organized protests against the discrimination occurring in the local war industries.

Find a Women’s March in your area this weekend.