The Girl Who Could Fix Anything by Mara Rockliff illustrated by Daniel Duncan

The Girl who could Fix Anything - Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer

"Despite graduating with honours in electrical engineering and going onto earn her masters of science doing research on internal combustion engines, Beatrice found it hard to get a job in her field. Hearing that she placed first at Brooklands racetrack on a motorbike she had modified herself, one interviewer said, 'I suppose the men let you win."

As a young child Beatrice loved to pull things apart and put them back together. She clearly had an engineering mind. Luckily her mother and father were happy to encourage her even though it is early 1900 and girls do not usually study engineering especially not at a university. 

Beatrice is most famous for inventing the restrictor that saved the spitfire and Hurricane. In 1949 she was honoured by King George VI with the Order of the British Empire. 

Read more here:

Magnificent Women WES

Meet Beatrice Shilling Stemettes

Beatrice Shilling - Revolutionising the Spitfire

I hope this post amazes you.  I had never heard of Beatrice Shilling and yet she played a very important role in WWII and later she worked on runway safety and she designed and built a bobsled for the Royal Air Force Olympic team. 

In US schools students in Grade 4 or 5 study genre and in particular they study the genre of biography. Publishers have seen this gap in the market and so in recent years hundreds of wonderful picture book biographies have been published.  I have talked about a few here on this blog and my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has an enormous collection of them in her library. She incorporates this topic into her work with her higher ability Grade 2 students. This new one about an amazing engineer Beatrice Shilling who was born in 1909 by American author Mara Rockliff and British illustrator Daniel Duncan.

Blurb from the author web site: Beatrice Shilling wasn’t quite like other children. She could make anything. She could fix anything. And when she took a thing apart, she put it back together better than before. When Beatrice left home to study engineering, she knew that as a girl she wouldn’t be quite like the other engineers—and she wasn’t. She was better. Still, it took hard work and perseverance to persuade the Royal Aircraft Establishment to give her a chance. But when World War II broke out and British fighter pilots took to the skies in a desperate struggle for survival against Hitler’s bombers, it was clearly time for new ideas. Could Beatrice solve an engine puzzle and help Britain win the war?

An appealing biography that will inspire young scientists and those who may quietly rebel against the status quo. Kirkus

"Text and pictures work together to capture the life and spirit of a remarkable woman....The text is lively and succinct, full of vigorous action verbs. The expressive illustrations convey time and place beautifully and are infused variously with humour (such as when apprentice-engineer Beatrice, helping to bring electricity to villages, falls through a ceiling) and drama (as in a stunning double-page spread of London aflame during the Blitz)." Horn Book

I've added this Daniel Duncan book to my "to read" list:

A Thousand Glass Flowers by Evan Turk

A Thousand Glass Flowers - Marietta Barovier and the invention of the Rosetta Bead.

"Her father ... as a true maestro, a master of the glass. He performed miracles with it, turning the molten sand into elegant forms as clear as water, as white as milk, or as richly coloured as precious stones."

A Thousand Glass Flowers is a perfect book to share with your library groups this year - The International Year of Glass.

Publisher blurb: Marietta and her family lived on the island of Murano, near Venice, as all glassmakers did in the early Renaissance. Her father, Angelo Barovier, was a true maestro, a master of glass. Marietta longed to create gorgeous glass too, but glass was men’s work. One day her father showed her how to shape the scalding-hot material into a work of art, and Marietta was mesmerized. Her skills grew and grew. Marietta worked until she created her own unique glass bead: the rosetta. Small but precious, the beautiful beads grew popular around the world and became as valuable as gold. The young girl who was once told she could not create art was now the woman who would leave her mark on glasswork for centuries to come.

You can see some pages inside this book at Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast. And here is a wonderful, generous and detailed interview with Evan Turk by Elizabeth Bird at the School Library Journal. 

In this book you will read about glass making in 1496 alongside the expectations levelled at girls and women. Marietta is such a wonderful role model for young girls who want to pursue their own passion. There is an extensive author's note at the back of this book where you can read more about glass making, Marietta, her family and the rosetta beads. These are also called millefiori which means 'a thousand flowers'.  The beads are made from segments cut from long ropes of layered glass. This technique was first used in Egypt thousands of years ago. 

"Marietta Barovier grew up in a world that did not typically allow women to own businesses, or reward women who worked instead of married." 

Clearly a labour of love, this ethereal and striking selection incorporates imagination, art, creativity, and women’s history in a story that emphasises dedication, resilience, and innovation.  An enchanting tale of a 15th-century artist that emphasises attributes and skills we need today. Kirkus Star review

A Thousand Glass Flowers is an intimate and beautiful story of an artist’s relationship with her father and what blossoms when she’s given the ability to grow into her talent. I’m happy that Marietta Barovier’s story fell into the talented hands of Evan Turk. I’m also very grateful to know Barovier's name, work, and legacy — and I hope that children will enjoy her story as much as I did. Horn Book

Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges illustrated by Sophie Blackall

I mentioned in a previous post that we have been exploring picture books with an Asian focus with our senior classes.  One of the first books we looked at was Ruby's Wish and it certainly generated some deep discussions.

Ruby is living in China in the early nineteenth century.  Her grandfather has made his fortune on the Gold Fields or "Gold Mountain.   That was what the Chinese called California when many men left to join the Gold Rush there."  As was the custom of the time, Grandfather has many wives and many sons who also have many wives and they all live together in a magnificent home.  "So at one time, the house was filled with the shrieks and laughter of over one hundred children."

Life is good for Ruby. She like to wear red but this is traditionally meant for celebrations.  This does not deter Ruby who adds a red ribbon to her jet black hair when her mother insists she must wear somber colours.  Grandfather is generous and so all the children are provided with lessons.  In spite of this, though, things are not always equal for boys and girls.  Ruby observes that girls are expected to learn cooking, keeping house and embroidery while the boys are free to play after class.

Ruby is careful with her calligraphy and is noticed by her grandfather.  One day she uses her calligraphy skills to write a heart-felt poem.

Alas bad luck to be born a girl; and worse lucky to be born 

into this house where only boys are cared for.

Her grandfather is given the poem and Ruby is summoned to his office. This is where the real skills of Ruby shine.  Her grandfather asks for examples of this inequality.  Her first example is small and unimportant. The boys get better cakes, Her second is also fairly minor. The boys have splendid lanterns in the shape of goldfish and dragons while the girl's are plain. Finally she makes her most important point :

"the boys will get to go to university, but the girls will be married."

How will her grandfather react?

Here are a set of teaching notes, Kirkus review and illustrator web site.  A note at the end of the book explains that this story was inspired by the author's mother - the real Ruby who did indeed attend university as one of the first female students.  You can see the whole book here.