EDITH RENFROW SMITH, the First Black Woman to Graduate from Grinnell College—and still inspiring everyone she meets!

Front Cover: No One Is Better Than You

Edith Renfrow Smith was born in Grinnell, Iowa in 1914 to one of the few Black families in the area. In 1937 she became the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College. In 2024, at the age of 109, she continues to encourage and inspire everyone she meets. 

From the back cover of No One Is Better Than You

Her life story is told by Monique McLay Shore in her wonderful new picture book biography No One Is Better Than You: Edith Renfrow Smith and the Power of aMother’s Words. The beautiful and historically accurate illustrations are by Erica Lauren Butler.

Edith's graduation from Grinnell College, 1937. Illustration by Erica Butler.

Yesterday I received my first copy of the book, hot off the press. It is beautiful! I congratulate Monique and Erica for bringing Edith’s story to life and making it known to the wider world and for generations to come. The book is available at the Grinnell College Book Store.

I played a small part in the evolution of this book. Last spring I got an email from the alumni office at Grinnell College, (my alma mater,1966). I learned that another alum, Monique Shore (1990), was working on a children’s book biography of Edith Renfrow Smith. I had recently read about Edith in the college magazine so I was already intrigued. Knowing that I had published many children’s books, the alumni office asked if I would be willing to give any advice to Monique, who was new to the publishing world. Of course I agreed.

Monique had stayed in Grinnell after her graduation and became interested in local history. She works as a librarian at the town library. By the time I connected with her she had already done extensive research about Edith and her family, interviewed Edith and her daughter in Chicago and in Grinnell, and located an illustrator for the book. As I read Monique's manuscript I could see places where she could make it even better—by adding more details in some cases, moving some information to the back matter, and letting the illustrations tell the story in lieu of long descriptions.

Since Monique lives in Iowa and I live in Los Angeles, we met on Zoom. I had forgotten that the college yearbook is called The Cyclone. During one of our meetings I could hear the tornado watch siren as Monique hastily carried her computer to the basement of her house. But nothing stopped the progress of the book.

The process of shaping the manuscript that I went through with Monique was the same as when I am working on one of my own books except that in this case I was wearing the editor’s hat. And in the end, all the final decisions were made by Monique and Erica, with valuable input they got from Edith and her daughter. (It is rare that a biographer has the opportunity to get feedback from the subject of the book!) By mid-October the book was almost ready to go off to the publisher and Monique asked me to help with the proof reading—it is always good have a fresh pair of eyes to check one last time. Although I found a few small things, the book was in great shape and ready to go to the printer.

And now the book is ready for the world at large. Edith comes alive on every page through Monique’s well chosen words and Erica’s beautiful detailed illustrations. The story is a window on the life of a Black family in a small Iowa town in the first half of the 20^th century and later, on Edith’s adult life in Chicago, where she lives today. Although written for children, No One Is Better Than You is for all ages, and not just for people in Iowa and Chicago, but everywhere. And the theme is universal: No one is better than you. I highly recommend this book!

The story of the creation of No One Is Better Than You , from idea to printed page, is chronicled in Monique’s blog. You can also read about the book and its creation in an article celebrating its publication in the Southeast Iowa Union newspaper.

Edith with her mother. Illustration by Erica Butler.

5 STAR RATING on GOODREADS for SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL!

I was pleased to discover that SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL, my memoir about growing up in a settlement house in the 1950s, has a 5 star rating on Goodreads. The book is available on Amazon, or you can order it at your favorite bookstore. ISBN 9798864903285

Be the first to write a review on Goodreads! And Amazon!

Thanks!

NATURAL HABITAT SCHOOL GARDEN: A Hotspot of Diversity in the Middle of Los Angeles

Natural Habitat Garden, Esperanza School, Los Angeles, CA

Just a few blocks from the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles is an amazing garden filled with native California plants. A few years ago it was just an empty patch of dirt tucked into a corner of the playground at Esperanza Elementary School. Now the plants have grown tall and are competing with one another for space. For students at Esperanza it is an opportunity to observe nature up close. I learned on my recent visit that the garden has been named a hotspot of diversity for the richness of its plants and wildlife.

Principal Brad Rumble

Principal Brad Rumble, who has been key to the creation of the garden and also an avid bird watcher, told me that 80 species of birds have been identified at the school. On a bulletin board inside the school, “Observing Our Natural History”, students compared the two species of hummingbird found in the garden—Anna’s and Allen’s. (In my yard at home we have just Anna's hummingbirds.)

Observing Our Natural History: Hummingbirds

Last week I visited Esperanza for the first time since 2020 and I was amazed to see how much the garden had grown. I did presentations in the library with third and fourth grade students of special science teacher Elizabeth Williams. 

Teacher Elizabeth Williams

Presenting to students in the library.

I always love to see the students’ enthusiasm for nature and was pleased with their good response to my presentation. Before they went back to their classrooms each of them was given one of my books for me to sign. I know it is very special for them to have a book signed by the author. 

With students in the garden.

After my presentations, Mr. Rumble, Mrs. Williams and some of the students took me on a tour of the Habitat. The students at Esperanza have become young naturalists, learning how to identify plants and wildlife in the garden. I was so impressed by the student who spotted a dragonfly perched on one of the plants. I had to look carefully to see it at all, and the dragonfly was so well camouflaged that even in my photograph it is hard to spot. 

A path through the garden leads to a weather station.

There is always something new to see in the garden. I have been visiting Esperanza almost every school year since 2017. (There was a gap during the pandemic.) I look forward to going back next year and seeing how much the garden has grown and changed.

Dragonfly.

Blog posts of my previous visits to Esperanza: August 18, 2017, June 13, 2018, November 21,2018, February 26, 2020 .

 

NEW BOOK! SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL, My Memoir About Growing Up in Minneapolis at North East Neighborhood House

Caroline, Age 4, with her parents and brother Steve, on the steps of North East Neighborhood House

A book project long in the making is a memoir of my childhood years in Minneapolis, Settlement HouseGirl: Growing Up in the 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It focuses on the time our family lived at the settlement house that my father directed, as well as its influence on my life even after we moved to our own house in South Minneapolis. My original intention in writing the book was to explore the mid-20th century history of NENH and its role in the community at a time when settlement houses like it were in transition to today’s social service centers. But as I wrote down my memories and researched letters and documents, I realized that it was really a story about me and my family set in the context of a functioning settlement house and the surrounding neighborhood. The book ends in the summer of 1966, after I have graduated from Grinnell College, and the Scheaffer family heads to California. You can find the book on Amazon but you have to search for Caroline Scheaffer Arnold (which Google keeps trying to misspell!)

Settlement House Girl chronicles my childhood at North East Neighborhood House in Northeast Minneapolis, Minnesota, as I interacted and shared meals with other settlement house residents, participated in clubs, sports and community activities, and observed the roles of the staff and my social worker parents. It is an inside view of a working settlement house in the 1950s. The 38 chapters of the book range from my first days at the NENH nursery school, to after-school clubs and community holiday celebrations at the settlement, family and school life, and summers at Camp Bovey, the NENH camp in Wisconsin.

North East Neighborhood House, 1929 2nd Street NE. Our apartment was on the third floor.

North East Neighborhood House, founded in 1915, was part of the settlement house movement that began in England in 1884 and was brought to the US by people like Jane Addams at Hull House, in Chicago. Settlement houses, often called neighborhood houses, provided social services in immigrant and poor urban neighborhoods. NENH was supported by charitable donations and by the Community Chest (United Fund.)  Activities were led by volunteers who came from other parts of the city and by staff members who lived at the settlement house.

My father, Les Scheaffer, was the NENH director from 1948 to 1966. Few families lived in settlement houses as ours did and we were one of the last. By the 1950s, the tradition of social workers living in settlement houses was coming to an end. When my family moved out, it was the end of an era.

The stories in this book will spark memories in adults who grew up in the same time period, whether in Minneapolis or elsewhere. Librarians and teachers who know my books for children will find clues to my future life as a writer and illustrator. This book is about the role of settlement houses in urban neighborhoods at mid-century. It is a window onto a time when settlement houses were in transition from their roots in immigrant communities at the turn of the 20th century to becoming today’s modern social service agencies. What began as Northeast Neighborhood House more than 100 years ago, continues as East Side Neighborhood Services and it is still serving the needs of people in Northeast and East Minneapolis. My childhood at North East Neighborhood House provides a unique perspective on the role it has played in our social history.

LEO POLITI ART ON EXHIBIT AT LAPL, Los Angeles, CA: Scenes from the City's Rich Past

Angel's Flight, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, CA, drawing by Leo Politi

“There was no easy way to get to the top of Bunker Hill from the steep east side, so in 1901 engineer Colonel J.W. Eddy built ‘Angel’s Flight’, and all through the years, since then, his two little cable cars, Olivet and Sinai, have been taking people up and down the Hill…” (Leo Politi) 

Leo Politi (1906-1998), award winning children’s book illustrator and artist of iconic Los Angeles scenes, is the quintessential California artist. His art tells the story of Los Angeles as it was in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Many of his paintings are in the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. Recently, they have been mounted in a permanent exhibit in the children’s book department, along with photos of the artist at work. An excellent remembrance by Tina Princenthal, Senior Librarian, of Leo Politi and his impact on the people and life of the city is on the LAPL blog. The post includes a list of Leo Politi's books available at the library.

Painting: House of Nell McKinzie. Photo: Leo Politi with admirers.

“One of the few original residents of Bunker Hill is Nell McKinzie…She lived at 245 Bunker Hill Avenue all of her life…'Father built a plain house because he could not afford the gingerbread ornaments’ she said almost apologetically one day.” (Leo Politi)

“I asked Miss McKinzie: ‘Do you remember the Hill when you were a little girl?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ she answered. ‘Everywhere on the Hill there were beautiful homes! My sisters and brother and I used to play with other children of the neighborhood…” (Leo Politi)

Feeding the pigeons.

I went to see the Leo Politi exhibit on a recent visit to the library. It was wonderful to view the original art up close and to read the accompanying descriptions. The exhibit is in two parts—in rooms at each end of the main reading room of the children’s department.  Here are a few examples from the exhibit. I recommend that you go yourself to see them all.

Brousseau Home

“With the huge noisy city buzzing  with life all around it, the old Brousseau mansion now stands lovely and silent.” (Leo Politi)

Artist Colony Sketch.

”The many intricate stairways winding up and down Clay Street, from one building to another, and from one floor to another, gave the place a quaint atmosphere which attracted artists…” (Leo Politi)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! A Time for Beginnings and Endings

Doorway, Dublin, Ireland

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways and symbol of the dualities of life--beginnings and endings, life and death, old and new. As we close the door of 2023 and open the door of 2024, I wish you all a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR

from Caroline Arnold Art and Books

And a healthy and productive year ahead!