Books with author Penny Colman

Now in paperback--the award-winning account of how 18 million women, many of whom had never before held a job, entered the work force in 1942-45 to help the United States fight World War II. Their unprecedented participation would change the course of history for women, and America, forever. An ALA Best Book for Young AdultAn ALA Notable Book A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon BookAn IRA Teachers' Choice A Junior Library Guild Selection An NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Award Winner for Outstanding Nonfiction A New York Public Library Best Book for the Teenager A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Dorothea Dix was almost forty years old when she discovered that people, especially poor people, with mental illness were "confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience." Outraged by this knowledge, Dix led a forty-year crusade for the humane treatment of people with mental illness. Year after year, she traveled thousands of miles by stagecoach, boats, horseback, and railroad to investigate and expose the horrendous conditions. She lobbied legislators, governors, and presidents to provide treatment and facilities for people with mental illness. She took her crusade to Scotland, Italy, and Russia. During the Civil War, she served as the Superintendent of the Female Nurses of the Army, as such she had more authority and power than any other woman had had in the military prior to and during the Civil War. After the war, she resumed her crusade. When Dorothea Dix died in 1887, people around the world honored her. Proclamations, testimonials, and tributes were spoken and printed from the United States to Japan to England. A prominent American doctor wrote, "Thus had died and been laid to rest the most useful and distinguished woman America has yet produced."

Weaving events, quotations, personalities, and commentary into a page-turning narrative, Penny Colman's Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony vividly portrays a friendship that changed history. In the Spring of 1851 two women met on a street corner in Seneca Falls, New York―Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a thirty-five year old mother of four boys, and Susan B. Anthony, a thirty-one year old, unmarried, former school teacher. Immediately drawn to each other, they formed an everlasting and legendary friendship. Together they challenged entrenched beliefs, customs, and laws that oppressed women and spearheaded the fight to gain legal rights, including the right to vote despite fierce opposition, daunting conditions, scandalous entanglements and betrayal by their friends and allies.

President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor in 1933 during the greatest economic crisis in American history-the Great Depression. At that time, women weren't supposed to have careers, or be outspoken, or be powerful. Bur that did not stop Frances Perkins. With her familiar tricorn hat planted firmly on her head, Perkins prodded, pressured, and persuaded businessmen, labor leaders, and politicians to respond to the needs of the American people and end child labor, establish safer working conditions, fairer wages, reasonable working hours, unemployment insurance, and Social Security. Dedicated, disciplined, often controversial, Frances Perkins exerted a far-ranging influence on twentieth-century America. To accomplish things, she said, ''You just can't be afraid.''

Every year on the fourth Thursday of November, Americans celebrate with a Thanksgiving meal. But what is the origin of this tradition? Did it really begin when the Pilgrims and Native Americans got together in 1621 in Plymouth,Massachusetts? In her signature narrative nonfiction style, Penny Colman paints a fascinating picture of this cherished American holiday. She examines numerous Thanksgiving claims which were antecedents to the national holiday we celebrate today, raises the turkey question―does everyone eat turkey on Thanksgiving?―and shows Sarah Josepha Hale's instrumental role in establishing the holiday. Get ready to delve into the rich past of Thanksgiving in an enlightening history that uncovers the true story.Thanksgiving is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Weaving events, quotations, personalities, and commentary into a page-turning narrative, Penny Colman's Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony vividly portrays a friendship that changed history. In the Spring of 1851 two women met on a street corner in Seneca Falls, New York—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a thirty-five year old mother of four boys, and Susan B. Anthony, a thirty-one year old, unmarried, former school teacher. Immediately drawn to each other, they formed an everlasting and legendary friendship. Together they challenged entrenched beliefs, customs, and laws that oppressed women and spearheaded the fight to gain legal rights, including the right to vote despite fierce opposition, daunting conditions, scandalous entanglements and betrayal by their friends and allies.

During World War II, 127 women managed to obtain official accreditation from the U.S. War Department as war correspondents. In spite of U.S. military regulations that forbade women to cover combat, Martha Gellhorn, Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and many others found ways to get “where the action was.” Their tenacity, bravery, and fresh approach to reporting war news broke the gender barrier and opened the way for women journalists of today. This is the exciting story of what they did and how they did it—flying bombing missions, taking photographs inside Buchenwald, stowing away on D day hospital ships, dodging bullets on Iwo Jima, and much more. Penny Colman’s authoritative and exciting text also functions as an overview of the war and is profusely illustrated with up-front photos.

Orphaned at an early age, Madam C. J. Walker, who was born Sarah Breedlove, told people, "I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it!" A washerwoman who turned herself into a powerhouse, Madam revolutionized the business of hair-care products for black women. As her business grew, she moved from Denver to Pittsburgh and then to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she established a beauty school, a laboratory, and a factory where her products were developed and made. In 1913 her daughter A'Lelia opened a beauty salon in a townhouse in Harlem, a section of New York City. Madam soon moved there because, she said, "There is so much joy living in New York." In 1918, she moved into a thirty-room mansion she had built in a town not far from New York. A year later she died at the age of fifty-one years. Her last words were, "I want to live to help my race." During her lifetime, Madam C. J. Walker had made lots of money; she had spent some of it on fancy cars, clothes, a gold-leaved grand piano and harp, and a mansion. But she also used her money to help make life better for other people.

The adventures of eight inspiring women of the twentieth century.Mary Gibson Henry risked her life following her passion for new botanical species. During the Civil War, Katharine Wormeley worked aboard hospital ships and helped to save the lives of many sick and wounded soldiers. With a promise and a dollar and a half, Mary McLeod Bethune opened a school for African American girls in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1904, at a time when schools were segregated. Award-winning author Penny Colman offers a compelling collection of true stories about eight women who were bold enough to confront obstacles and take risks in the pursuit of their goals. This is a book that celebrates the intelligence, fortitude, and courage of women.

In the Spring of 1851 two women met on a street corner in Seneca Falls, New York―Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a thirty-five year old mother of four boys, and Susan B. Anthony, a thirty-one year old, unmarried, former school teacher. Immediately drawn to each other, they formed an everlasting and legendary friendship. Together they challenged entrenched beliefs, customs, and laws that oppressed women and spearheaded the fight to gain legal rights, including the right to vote despite fierce opposition, daunting conditions, scandalous entanglements and betrayal by their friends and allies. Weaving events, quotations, personalities, and commentary into a page-turning narrative, Penny Colman tells this compelling story and vividly portrays the friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a friendship that changed history.

Dorothea Dix was almost forty years old when she discovered that people, especially poor people, with mental illness were "confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience." Outraged by this knowledge, Dix led a forty-year crusade for the humane treatment of people with mental illness. Year after year, she traveled thousands of miles by stagecoach, boats, horseback, and railroad to investigate and expose the horrendous conditions. She lobbied legislators, governors, and presidents to provide treatment and facilities for people with mental illness. She took her crusade to Scotland, Italy, and Russia. During the Civil War, she served as the Superintendent of the Female Nurses of the Army, as such she had more authority and power than any other woman had had in the military prior to and during the Civil War. After the war, she resumed her crusade. When Dorothea Dix died in 1887, people around the world honored her. Proclamations, testimonials, and tributes were spoken and printed from the United States to Japan to England. A prominent American doctor wrote, "Thus had died and been laid to rest the most useful and distinguished woman America has yet produced."

Drawing on extensive historical and anthropological research, personal accounts, and interviews with people who work in the funeral industry, Penny Colman examines the compelling subjects of death and burial across cultures and societies. The text, enriched with stories both humorous and poignant, includes details about the decomposition and embalming processes (an adult corpse buried six feet deep without a coffin will usually take five to ten years to turn into a skeleton) and describes the various customs associated with containing remains (the Igala people in Nigeria have a custom of burying people in as many as twenty-seven layers of clothing). Intriguing facts are revealed at every turn; for example, in Madagascar winter was considered the corpse-turning season.This comprehensive book also includes a list of burial sites of famous people, images in the arts associated with death, fascinating epitaphs and gravestone carvings, a chronology and a glossary, and over a hundred black-and-white photographs, most of which were taken by the author.Penny Colman writes with compassion and intelligence and humanizes the difficult subjects of death and burial. The result is a powerful look at an inevitable part of life-death.