Minnie Holsinger, The Farmer's Wife 50, Marguerite de Angeli

This is blog #50 of my on-going series sharing pages from the scrap book of Minnie Holsinger, which she compiled in the 30s and 40s while she and Grandpa Charlie were saving to buy a farm.

Here’s a link to Marguerite de Angeli’s Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_de_Angeli

Here are some highlights: “Her 1946 story “Bright April” was the first children’s book to address the divisive issue of racial prejudice. She was twice named a Caldecott Honor Book illustator, first in 1945 for “Yonie Wondernose” and 1955 for “Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes”. She received a 1950 Newberry Medal for “Door in the Wall” (evocative title, I’m looking forward to reading that one).” 

From my perspective, researching and blogging about Grandma Minnie’s scrap file has been revelatory. Each day, I learn about illustrators who previously were completely unknown to me. Marguerite de Angeli is an prime example of this. She was exemplary of the secular humanist values of compassion and tolerance that I aspire to. Quoting the Wikipedia article further: “Her work explored and depicted the traditions and rich cultural diversity of common people more frequently overlooked- a semi-autobiographical Great Depression family, African American children experiencing the sting of racial prejudice, Polish mine workers aspiring to life beyond the Pennsylvania coal mines, the physically handicapped, colonial Mennonites, the Amish, nineteenth-century Quakers supporting the underground railroad, immigrants, and other traditional or ethic peoples. De Angeli’s books carry an underlying message that we are really all the same, and that all of us deserve tolerance, care consideration and respect”

I’ve fallen in love with this woman who I’ve only just met!