South Burlington author Tanya Lee Stone
likes to shed the light on some unlikely and unsung heroes of our time.
She also has a lot to say about feminism, and well, just about anything
that is important. We were excited to host an event with Tanya this
spring, and have her talk about two of her newest books--- Courage Has No Color and Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? Unfortunately, the flu got to her first, and we weren't able to catch up with this busy Vermont author.
However, her books have been making waves in the literary world. Courage Has No Color, a
non-fiction narrative about the US's first African-American military
paratrooper unit. The book has received several starred reviews, and
Stone has been repeatedly complimented on her extensive and meticulous
research. "What these men accomplished was of their time. If you’re
looking at it through a 21st-century lens, you miss it.
Many children aren’t [aware of how the rights we enjoy now] were
achieved. That’s why I spend the amount of time I spend on background.
With context, on their own, children can get to, “Wow, that’s a big
deal, " says Stone.
Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors?
covers courageous ground of another kind-- the story of Elizabeth
Blackwell and her path to becoming America's first female doctor in the
1830's. Blackwell's medical school application was rejected from 28
various medical schools. When Geneva Medical School in New York state
accepted her, she didn’t
know that the (male) student body had voted on her acceptance as a joke,
but she graduated with the top grades in her class.
Tanya has also written numerous other books including a non-fiction biography of the Barbie doll (The Good, the Bad and the Barbie), the story of the 13 first women astronauts called Almost Astronauts and a book of fiction for young adults called A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl.
We hope to bring Tanya to Bear Pond for a second go round. In the
meantime, Tanya is out proclaiming the good news about the positive
strides we have made, and can continue to make in our culture by
inspiring children through great literature.