The Great Mara Rockliff Round-Up

I love a good project and today I present to you my latest project: The Great Mara Rockliff Round-Up. It’s where I read (almost) every book written by Mara Rockliff. I say almost because she has a couple, earlier books I couldn’t get my hands on, but the bulk of her picture book biographies and inspired-by-real-life picture books are recounted here!

From the official places, “Mara Rockliff is the author of many lively historical books for children, including Around America to Win the Vote and Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France, winner of the Cook Prize and an Orbis Pictus Honor book. “

As someone who loves picture book biographies, especially of interesting women, I knew I was intrigued, and when I realized I hadn’t rad some of her work, I decided to undertake this project! it went by a lot faster than my project ot watch all the films of Colin Firth….

Without further ado, the Great Mara Rockliff Round-Up!

Gingerbread for Liberty: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution by Mara Rockliff, pictures by Vincent X. Kirsch.

A fun tale that looks at the American Revolution through new eyes, this historical account of a German Baker living in the colonies who used his good will, and his gingerbread, to sway the Hessians, feels fantastical but the way Rockliff tells it, and Kirsch illustrates it, will stick in the reader’s mind longer than any history book. Rockliff’s writing is crisp and evocative and joyous, and Kirsch’s illustrations are pleasing to the eye and tempting to the mouth: mirroring the gingerbread style of the protagonist’s work.

Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

A multi-cultural apartment building is brought together by weekly Shabbat, but when the hostess falls sick, they must all bring a dish from their own heritage to make the magic again. Rockliff’s story telling flows easily here, creating unique characters and bringing them together again. The familiar illustrations, with their slightly too large features and almost clay-mation style moments help this story feel ripped from your grandmother’s scrapbook.

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery That Baffled All of France by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

What illustrations! This was a fun, lesser known moment of history that as an adult I found really digestible, and I can see the appeal to kids too! Ben Franklin’s in France, trying to get some help for the American Revolution, but he’s assigned a side quest: help figure out what Dr. Mesmer is doing, and if the so called “force” he uses is real. Surprise: it’s not. Anyone who’s heard of hypnosis or the placebo effect will recognize this right away, but young readers will be drawn in by the amazing, perfectly matched illustrations and Rockliff’s reading style and come away not just with a wider understanding of the work of Founding Fathers, but also some scientific jargon to share!

Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Perfect for fans of “Hidden Figures” type biographies that better illuminate the amazing figures of the Civl Rights movement. Georgia Gilmore was an integral part of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and her great cooking kept the activists fed as well as supported through monetary donations. Rockliff’s prose is tight and engaging as always, but the illustration style for this is more artistic than child-focused. It works better alongside older elementary and middle grade-geared depictions of the Civil Rights Movement, more than Rockliff’s other work. I really enjoyed Rockliff’s author’s note in this one about the sources she used!

Jefferson Measures a Moose by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by S.D. Schindler

Rockliff’s tendency for finding the weird bits of known history and illuminating them in prose is honestly impressive. In this tale, we meet Thomas Jefferson, but politics be darned—he’s got counting to do. His passion for counting and knowing how “much” and how “long” culminates in a long standing feud with a French natural historian who says American animals are small and puny. Jefferson decides to rock his world with a moose! Of course, not everything goes as planned. While the illustration style makes this feel like it was published two decades earlier than it was, Rockliff’s dedication to interesting back-matter saves the day.

The Busiest Street in Town by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Sarah McMenemy

This is a sweet tale of a really busy street, two old ladies who live on either side, and their erratic (my judgment) call to simply slow the traffic down by going inside of it. It starts with a wingback chair, and then a parcheesi board, and then chalk and hopscotch and soon it’s no longer a busy boulevard, it’s a neighborhood street again. It’s got fun, almost vibrant old-timely illustrations that still feel alive but of a certain era, you know? Great color palette, and while I can’t see KIDS really enjoying this one, it’s a cute enough read.

Try It: How Freida Caplan Changed the Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Giselle Potter

Rockliff takes on the story of Freida Caplan, a foodie who helped popularize “different” and “unique” fruits and vegetables. While her prose is good and firm, and Potter’s illustrations help bring the foods to life and don’t clog up every page with full-background, this book unfortunately feels very unrooted from a specific time or place. There are no dates or places used until the author’s note—so it’s hard to know if this is even really a biography if you didn’t know otherwise. It’s interesting, but feels underdeveloped because we don’t have that grounding or even a reference point for HOW Freida became this fixture. Did she write books? Have a TV show? Was it just in the community? Was she a grocery story buyer? I was a little disappointed by this one. 

Lights! Camera! Alice! The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Simona Ciralao

The story of Alice Guy-Blance unfolds, motion picture style, in this sweet, well-paced tale completed with gorgeous, light illustrations that capture the fun of the story unfolding. From tragic backstory to major success and back to some tragedy, this biography does a good job of keeping it high-line with Alice’s story, hitting the major points to keep you interested without bogging you down in detail. Especially since what makes Alice unique is her stories, showing the stories unfolding works well! The dividers—old movie scene cover style—were a nice addition. 

A Perfect Fit: How Lena “Lane” Bryant Changed the Shape of Fashion by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Rockliff is great at finding a subject that on the surface you think you know or recognize–this time plus-size fashion store Lane Bryant, and giving you a subverted, new look at it. This is a classic immigrant tale in many ways–Lena leaving Lithuania (though it’s not explicitly Lithuania until the author’s note) for a better life, a freer life, in America. Her passion for sewing leads her to her own business, after her husband’s untimely death, and her passion for making dresses that fit people and are stylish and comfortable and not just one-size fits all. I appreciated that this stayed rooted in Lena’s lifetime and didn’t try to forecast her future—the illustration style was old-timey and kind of matched the story, but the spread with what looked like REAL lace was a real treat.

Born to Swing: Lil Hardin Armstrong’s Life in Jazz by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Michele Wood

Lil Armstrong, best known now for being married to Louis Armstrong, couldn’t get away from jazz—this book captures her life, from childhood to death at the piano, alongside some familiar beats of history—the Great Migration, the Jazz Renaissance, and with many familiar characters as well. I don’t have the right language to describe the illustration style–but it reminded me of other work of the era, of Black joyous music life, of flatter characters but bigger smiles, etc. It worked well with the story. It’s not the fanciest of tales, maybe not even that eye-opening to audiences today, but the choice to tell it in the first person helped with the engagement.

The Grudge Keeper by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler

This was a cute tale that felt ripped from old-timey storybooks in its composition and its illustrations, but is clearly an important message if you can drill it into the heads of readers. There’s a town that doesn’t hold grudges, instead, they write them down and take them to Cornelius, The Grudge Keeper, who’s house is full of every mundane grudge they hold agaisnt everyone. One day, a wind storm comes and things get all topsy turvy, and during the process of saving Cornelius from drowning in the grudges, they realizes the grudges are silly and come together as a town again. It’s got a very classic Mara Rockliff feel, and Wheeler’s illustrations are very classic story book!

Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Zosia Dzierawska

A book about a boy! I kid. This is another Rockliff attempt at narativizing a sliver of history–the creation of Esperanto, which I had heard of vaguely, but knew nothing about. Did this book make me want to learn more? Absolutely. It’s got great illustrations, especially when thinking about the way the language was used, but I didn’t find HIM that interesting as a character, unfortunately. I felt like we needed more childhood for this to work as a picture book, or more of other people using the language outside of his life–I’m not sure.

Anything but Ordinary Addie: The True Story of Adelaide Herrmann Queen of Magic by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

What a fascinating book! Bruno’s illustration style really sells this one—it feels like a magic show come to life. The costuming, the staging, the use of backgrounds, amazing. The story of Adelaide Herrmann feels a bit lost in time—old but not specifically dated–but this is a really visually stunning book. I like the way the text POPS in particular places, it’s well-paced, and again…the illustrations. It’s like begin IN a movie.

Billie Jean! How Tennis Star Billie Jean King Changed Women’s Sports by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley

I’ve read this before, and only now, in context of reading her other work, do I notice how…common, and ordinary, and almost boring this one is in comparison. The story of Billie Jean King is an interesting one, but hardly as er…exciting to modern kids living post Title IX as magic and gingerbread baking, etc. The illustration style is really just fine—it captures Billie fine, but doesn’t make the book come to life. The story feels like it has a lots of gaps, but that may just be my adult knowledge trying to fill in the things in between scenes. I don’t know that this book will make anyone want to play tennis, but it may inspire them to learn more about King.

My Heart Will Not Sit Down by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Ann Tanksley

Based on a true tale, this feels ripped from a long time ago—but also very 2010s, if you know what I mean, in publishing. A young girl in an African village hears that her white teacher’s “village” of New York is suffering during the Great Depression and wants to send them money. It’s a sweet story that kind of subverts the expected narrative–especially for Western readers, but though Tanksley’s illustrations feel very true to her own style and to the overall vibe of the book, something about this overall didn’t sit right right me. I can’t figure out why I wasn’t as moved by this one. It felt a lot older than 2012, certainly!

The Girl Who Could Fix Anything: Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Daniel Duncan

A more traditional Rockliff tale! Beatrice was a unique girl raised in pre-WW2 Britain who apprenticed as an engineer and had a knack for fixing things. When the country went to war, she was integral in an engine fix that helped save lives, etc. Duncan’s illustrations are a good match for the story, if not especially engaging, and the backmatter does a good job at filling in the gaps in the necessitated shorted story of the picture book biography. I loved that this included her making mistakes and kind of celebrated how that was part of the process of learning.

Me and Momma and Big John by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by William Low

This is what I come to Mara Rockliff books for–a slice of a life that I might never have encountered before, that comes to life on the page, but doesn’t hit me over the head with a message. This is a story of a family, a job that to us might seem lost in time, and an unfinished Cathedral. Mama is a stonemason working on Big John in NYC, and her kids are blown away by the fact that she’s working on a singular stone for so long. The realistic almost hay illustrations perfectly capture the story, and the author’s note is really critical for making this one land.

Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Votes by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Hadley Hooper

This was the first Mara Rockliff book I ever read! I was doing a lot of programming around the 19th Amendment for the 100th anniversary, and read this aloud for a special suffrage story time. This is a classic Rockliff take on the suffrage story–pulling at the threads that might not have been none before, making it palatable for a young audience, etc. It’s a road trip book, interwoven with symbols and tales of suffragist work, etc. I re-read this one as my last book i this series, and ultimately, I see that it’s a fine piece of her work, and engaging, but not her best work when it comes to kid appeal and prose value. Overall though, without it, would I have read uh….almost everything she wrote?