Most people know about President FDR, but do you know the woman who created his groundbreaking New Deal?
As a young girl, Frances Perkins was very shy and quiet. But her grandmother encouraged Frances to always challenge herself. When somebody opens a door to you, go forward.
And so she did.
Frances realized she had to make her voice heard, even when speaking made her uncomfortable, and use it to fight injustice and build programs to protect people across the nation. So when newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally asked Frances to be the first female Secretary of Labor and help pull the nation out of the Great Depression, she knew she had to walk through that open door and forward into history.
Kathleen Krull is the author of No Truth Without Ruth: The Life of Ruth Bader, as well as A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull; Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought); The Only Woman in the Photo; and other acclaimed biographies for young readers. She graduated from the girls’ preparatory Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, studied music at Northwestern University, and then earned a B.A. in 1974 from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, magna cum laude, majoring in English, minoring in music.[2]She lives in San Diego, California. Visit her website at KathleenKrull.com.
Read Aloud Tips
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Pair this book with various spotlights on empowering, influential, and possibly unfamiliar women in history. Ask students what they perceive the challenges and triumphs involved in assuming roles of such high responsibility.
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Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. Dedicate time to learn about other monumental women like this. For example, Kamala Harris becoming the first woman and bi-racial vice president.
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Stretch it: open the book wide and stretch for all the students to see the detailed and intricate illustrations.
“This empowering picture book biography of the first woman in a presidential cabinet — and the mastermind behind Roosevelt’s New Deal — will encourage kids to imagine how their own voices could change the world.” – A Mighty Girl’s 2020 Books of the Year