Meet Someone New!

This book tells Ella’s story from the time she was a young child, first learning about music through her Uncle Flood playing harmonica, to her encounters with racial discrimination, and finally her involvement with the folk music movement and her discovery that music could be a powerful tool to teach children and bridge cultures, leading her to perform and work with children on all seven continents (including Antarctica!)

Charley Pride was born with a honky-tonk mission: to bring all types of folks together through music! A multitalented singer, he played baseball in the Negro Leagues before exploding onto the country music scene.

The legendary Iranian singer and actress Googoosh (born Faegheh Atashin) made her stage debut at age two while performing alongside her acrobat father. By the time she reached adulthood, she was widely considered to be Iran’s first superstar. Googoosh was in the prime of her career and on the brink of international stardom, but after the 1979 Revolution, she was silenced and disappeared from public life for over twenty years.

A joyous picture book biography of José Sarria, a pioneering activist, drag queen, and the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the United States.

Revolutions are made out of love for people and for place. This was a core belief of activists and married couple James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs. James Boggs was a worker from rural Alabama in the segregated South. Grace Lee Boggs was a philosopher from urban Rhode Island and New York City. Both found their life’s work, and each other, in Detroit. James and Grace were drawn to civil rights–and the labor, social, and political organizations through which people struggled for better living conditions for all.

This picture book biography in verse follows the life of beloved Rajasthani drag performer Queen Harish, known as the Whirling Desert Queen of Rajasthan.

An illuminating picture book biography of renowned Mexican American folk musician Joan Baez, whose songs of justice, peace, and activism have inspired listeners to create positive change across the world, from Christopher Award-winning author Monica Brown and Caldecott Honoree Molly Mendoza.

From a young age, Willi Leake was bursting with energy and movement. He didn’t just walk. He danced, he strutted. He leapt and karate-chopped. His mother recognized early that Willi was born to dance and never stopped encouraging him. But where could a gay Black dancer find an audience? Luckily for Willi, he discovered vogue. Voguing turned out to be not only the perfect medium for Willi’s lightning-fast, precise moves and body contortions but also the art form he would revolutionize.

Patrick loved the way clothes could make someone feel their best, and he dreamed of creating designs full of joy and whimsy. Those dreams brought him to some of the biggest cities in the world, but when he got there, he was told that his clothes were too vibrant, too tacky, and too much! When the fashion world rejected his designs, Patrick just laughed and carried right on working. He created clothes for people like him, outsiders who didn’t grow up fitting in but weren’t afraid to stand out.

Sydney Mesher was born with ten toes and five fingers. But it was her toes that her mum noticed first. ‘I can tell she’s going to be a dancer,’ she said. And it turned out Mum was right–after years of hard work, Sydney eventually danced her way onto the famous stage of Radio City Music Hall, becoming the first Rockette with a visible disability.