Picture Books about Making a Difference in Print: Amazing Abe and Holding Her Own

Two recent picture books show how trailblazing newspaper writers gave a voice to racial and ethnic minorities in America.

Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants by Norman H. Finkelstein, illustrated by Vesper Stamper. Holiday House, 2024, 37 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 6-10

While growing up in Lithuania, Abe Cahan studied Torah and Hebrew like every Jewish boy, but loved all kinds of literature. He learned Russian in order to read the great Russian novelists and poet, but later got in trouble with the authorities for opposing the Czar. In search of freedom he made his way through Europe, settling finally in America, the “land of opportunity.” Opportunity abounded, but not without hard work and not without wrongs to right. Once he’d become proficient in English Abe began reporting for local newspapers about immigrant experiences and harsh working conditions. Eventually he helped found the Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts in Yiddish), which became the most influential Yiddish newspaper in the US—perhaps even the world. It exists online even today.

Further biographical information in the appendix reveals that Cahan was a socialist, as were many Jews at the time, but supported democracy and encouraged good American citizenship. His story is an encouraging one of assimilation without giving up one’s own heritage. Colorful illustrations by Vesper Stamper have a warm, all-of-a-kind family vibe.

Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes by Traci N. Todd, illustrated by Shannon Wright. Orchard Books, 2023, 48 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 6-10 .

“This story begins—as many stories do—with a blank page, and empty space waiting to be filled . . .” Zelda Jackson quickly learned to fill her empty spaces with colorful drawings and funny rhymes. She had a knack for seeing the humorous side of things, and a talent that took her from Monongehela PA to Pittsburgh, where she found a job reporting for the Courier, an African-American weekly.  Her first assignment was covering a boxing match, which she found thrilling. Soon Torchie Brown came along, a saucy single-panel cartoon character who found national syndication. Fame lured Zelda (nicknamed “Jackie”) to Chicago, where she wrote a column for the Chicago Defender, one of the nation’s premier black newspapers. With the end of World War II came another comic-strip character: Patty-Jo, a little girl with a big attitude, whose sharp observations of postwar life and racial disparities helped raise awareness of civil wrongs throughout America. During the fifties Patty-Jo was even marketed as a doll with an upscale wardrobe, popular with little girls both black and white.

Ormes’ politics leaned left, and caught the unwelcome attention of the FBI, but her attitude comes through in the upbeat text and playful, pixelized, illustrations that reflect Ormes’ own drawing style. “A little joy can feel like hope,” she said, not one to grouse and complain. She was a strong woman who never lost her sense of humor and zest for life.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Vesper Stamper illustrated her own post-holocaust verse novel, What the Night Sings (starred review). Two more picture books about Jewish language and literature are Sholem’s Treasure (about the creator of Tevye the milkman) and The Language of Angels (about the preservation of Hebrew).
• Reviews: Aretha Franklin, Gwyndolyn Brooks, and Elgin Baylor are the subjects of these three picture-book biographies.
• Resource: Picture books aren’t just for little kids! See our list of Black History Month picture books for tweens and teens.

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