Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Rappaport adds to her Big Words series with this well-researched picture biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As with all books in the series, quotations—set apart via color and larger text size—appear on each spread, bringing Ginsberg’s own voice to her story (“Traditional law firms were just beginning to hire Jews, but to be a woman, a Jew, and a mother to boot, that combination was a bit much”). Velasquez (Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library) creates pared-down compositions that immediately draw readers into Ginsberg’s facial expressions and emotions. The realistic oil paintings depict the justice early on as a cello-playing, baton-twirling teenager who loses her mother just before her high school graduation. She rebuffs mid-20th-century social norms, becoming a spouse and parent while breaking ground as a female law student, professor, lawyer, and, eventually, the second woman justice on the Supreme Court. The concise narrative weaves in five of Ginsburg’s landmark court cases, in which she champions women’s rights and gender parity. A timeline, author and illustrator notes, and a selected bibliography wrap up this very handsome addition to the growing collection of RBG literature for young readers. Ages 6–8. [em]Author’s agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. Illustrator’s agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Feb.) [/em]