Book review of Haben Girma’s autobiography “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law” by Virginia Beach Public Library’s Disability Services Librarian Kaitlyn Hodges, with recent additions.
5 Picture Books About Civil Rights
From “the father of the Underground Railroad” to the first woman vice president, these Black action figures are poetry in motion.
By Leah Henderson
Illustrated by Rachelle Baker
Verbs are words about “doing,” Veronica Chambers explains at the beginning of “Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb!” “Verbs are words that move the world forward,” as did Congresswoman Chisholm, a daughter of immigrants and the first African-American, and first woman, to make a serious bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She believed that “service to others is the rent you pay for your room on earth.” Instrumental in the creation of programs like Head Start and W.I.C. (which assists women, infants and children in need of food) and the formation of the Congressional Black Caucus, Chisholm felt strongly about making room for others. Just as Chambers’s words highlight a life punctuated by movement, Rachelle Baker’s illustrations render Chisholm as a “doer,” too, through expressive, determined lines and gestures. On almost every page, verbs such as