local_shipping   Free Standard U.S. Shipping on all orders $25 or more

  • Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver

Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver

Author
Tami Charles
Illustrator
Claire Almon
Publication Date
January 20, 2019
Genre / Grade Band
Non-fiction /  2nd − 3rd
Language
English
Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver
This book is currently unavailable.
Description
A little-known but fascinating and larger-than-life character, Mary Fields is one of the unsung, trailblazing African American women who helped settle the American West. A former slave, Fields became the first African American woman stagecoach driver in 1895, when, in her 60s, she beat out all the cowboys applying for the job by being the fastest to hitch a team of six horses. She won the dangerous and challenging job, and for many years traveled the badlands with her pet eagle, protecting the mail from outlaws and wild animals, never losing a single horse or package. Fields helped pave the way for other women and people of color to become stagecoach drivers and postal workers.
Publication date
January 20, 2019
Genre
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780807523056
Publisher
Albert Whitman & Company
BISAC categories
JNF007050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Cultural Heritage
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF007120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Women
JNF025180 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/State & Local
Library of Congress categories
African Americans
Biographies
Women
Frontier and pioneer life
Montana
African American pioneers
Women pioneers
Letter carriers
Coach drivers
Fields, Mary

Kirkus

From the moment Mary rides into town, readers will be hooked...A wild ride through an impressive bit of history.

ALA/Booklist

This picture-book biography reimagines Mary's successful tryout against younger white cowboys to become the first African American female stagecoach driver in the country.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2—This adventure-packed account set in 1895 Cascade, MT, centers on Mary Fields, a former slave and the first African American woman to drive a stagecoach. The author's note discusses the lack of available information on Fields—hence, the book reads more like a composite of Fields than a precise biography. Nonetheless, this story offers a much-needed correction to the often whitewashed history of the American West. Almon's full-color illustrations are soft, rounded, and appropriately child-friendly. VERDICT A worthy purchase for libraries serving young children and for classroom lessons on U.S. history, bravery, and overcoming adversity.—Kate Olson, Bangor School District, WI

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Tami Charles
Tami Charles is the author of numerous books for children, including her fiction debut, Like Vanessa. During an appearance on Good Morning America, she featured a Thanksgiving version of Freedom Soup, which she first learned to make from her husband's ti gran. Tami Charles lives in New Jersey.

Jacqueline Alcántara, the illustrator of The Field by Baptiste Paul, was selected for the inaugural We Need Diverse Books Mentorship program. She lives in Chicago.
More books like this