Add Wonder And Inspiration To The Life Of A Young Reader With Biographies
by Selene S. Vasquez

PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHIES: AGES 6 THRU 10

“Just sign me up, Coach...And as sure as ‘Strike Out’ is my middle name, I guarantee you’ll sell lots of tickets. Folks are curious to see a girl play.” A vivid biographical tribute to seventeen-year-old Alta Weiss, first female pitcher for a semipro all-male team.

A factual account of thirteen-year-old Edward Warren, a courageous orphaned apprentice who volunteered to take the first experimental ride in a balloon. Oil paintings capture the flavor of the period, with end papers replicating 1784 advertisements for a hot-air-balloon exhibition.

Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings
by Deborah Hopkinson.
Illustrated by Terry Widener. (Athenian, unpaged, $16.95).

The Amazing Air Balloon
by Jean Van Leeuwen.
Illustrated by Marco Ventura. (Putnam, 32 pp., $16.99).

PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHIES: AGES 8 THRU 12

An anecdotal tribute to the adventurous boyish exploits of the great writer and humorist Clemens whose formal education ended at the age of twelve. Artwork has a homespun softness reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.

The originator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and his beloved garden animal friends, Potter turned to drawing and writing as a child in the absence of interactions with family and friends. The immediacy of this first-person account underscores her inherent loneliness and creativity.

Selene S. Vasquez is a media specialist at Orange Brook Elementary School in Hollywood, Florida. She is formerly a children’s librarian for the New York Public Library.#

River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain
by William Anderson.
Illustrated by Dan Andreasenn. (HarperCollins, 32 pp., $15.99).

Beatrix: Various Episodes from the Life of Beatrix Potter
by Jeanette Winter.
(Farrer, 32 pp., $15.00).