Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress

Discover the inspiring story of the first black woman elected to Congress and to run for president in this picture book biography from a Newbery Honor-winning author and a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning illustrator.

Meet Shirley, a little girl who asks way too many questions! After spending her early years on her grandparents' farm in Barbados, she returns home to Brooklyn and immediately makes herself known. Shirley kicks butt in school; she breaks her mother's curfew; she plays jazz piano instead of classical. And as a young adult, she fights against the injustice she sees around her, against women and black people. Soon she is running for state assembly...and winning in a landslide. Three years later, she is on the campaign trail again, as the first black woman to run for Congress. Her slogan? Fighting Shirley Chisholm--Unbought and Unbossed! Does she win? You bet she does.

Author: Alicia D. Williams
Publisher: Anne Schwartz Books
Published: 06/01/2021
Pages: 48
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 11.20h x 9.10w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780593123683
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.4
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 517048 / Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress


Review Citation(s):
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 05/01/2021
Booklist 05/15/2021 pg. 44
Publishers Weekly 05/24/2021
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2021
School Library Journal 07/01/2021 pg. 81
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2021 pg. 127

About the Author
Alicia D. Williams's debut, the middle-grade novel Genesis Begins Again, received a Newbery Honor and was a Kirkus Prize nominee and a Morris Award finalist. It also won the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Author Award. Alicia is a graduate of the MFA program at Hamline University. An oral storyteller in the African American tradition, she also teaches kindergarten. Learn more at aliciadwilliams.com.

April Harrison, a renowned folk artist, is the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning illustrator of Patricia C. McKissack's final picture book, What Is Given from the Heart, which received four starred reviews and which the New York Times Book Review called an exquisite story of generosity. Most recently, she illustrated Nana Akua Goes to School by Patricia Elam Walker. Her work appears in the public collections of Vanderbilt University, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, the Atlanta Housing Authority, and the Erskine University Museum and in many private collections.