Alice Across America: The Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Road Trip
What's This Book About
Writer Sarah Glenn Marsh and illustrator Gilbert Ford’s Alice Across America is a nonfiction picture book account of maverick Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive a car across America in 1909. When Alice Ramsey was little, she loved to ride horses. As she grew up, more people were driving cars. From the moment Alice slid behind the wheel, she was crazy about cars. So when the Maxwell-Briscoe Company challenged her to drive one of their new cars across the country as a promotional ploy to prove that even a lady could do it, Alice daringly accepted. With several women by her side, these brazen drivers sustained many hardships over the course of a remarkable two-month journey and far surpassed all expectations. With a clever blend of women’s history, technological history, and American roading geography, this is a celebration of unstoppable women making strides in twentieth-century America. Christy Ottaviano Books
What Kind of Book is Alice Across America: The Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Road Trip
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Reviews
"Historical details about cars, roadways, and gender bias are incorporated throughout the story and enhance the plot . . . A fun and fascinating story that includes many favorites: cars, strong women, and little-known historical facts. A must-have for a school or public library collection."
"While driving cross country to advertise for a manufacturer may not qualify as the most important achievement in women’s history, this kid-friendly selection shows the power of resilience and determination, presents an interest and accomplishment that runs counter to gender stereotypes, and will draw in those interested in cars, history, and/or women’s rights with its straightforward yet energetic text and stylized illustrations."
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The Creatives Behind the Book
Sarah Glenn Marsh is the author of the young adult Reign of the Fallen series, as well as the novel Fear the Drowning Deep. She also writes children’s picture books including A Campfire Tail, Selfie Sebastian, The Bug Girl, and Ninita’s Big World: The True Story of a Deaf Pygmy Marmoset. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, a whole lot of books, and her own little zoo of four rescued sighthounds, two cockatiels, and many fish.
Gilbert Ford grew up in a family of professional photographers in Jackson, Mississippi, and moved to New York to attend Pratt Institute. After graduating, he worked as a designer and illustrator for a giftware company, creating educational puzzles, games, stickers, stationery, and activity books for children, before setting out on his own. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he has illustrated many New York Times best selling middle grade novels and also award-winning picture books. In 2015 he received his MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author/ illustrator of the non-fiction picture books The Marvelous Thing That Came From A Spring and How The Cookie Crumbled, both published by Atheneum. He is also the author/illustrator of his debut middle grade novel, Kindred Spirits, to be published by Macmillan/Ottaviano in 2020.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781250297020
- Publication Date
- February 4, 2020
- Publisher
- Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
- Illustration Details
- Illustrations painted in colourful dyes and finished digitally
- Page Count
- 48
- Audience
- Picture
- Reading Age
- 5 - 9 years
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