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.

MEET CAROLINE ARNOLD, Feature Article in Cheviot Living Magazine

Several months ago I was interviewed for an article in my neighborhood magazine, Cheviot Living, by local resident Gabrielle Michel. (The neighborhood where I live in Los Angeles is called Cheviot Hills, inspired by the hills on the border of Scotland and England of the same name.) Gabrielle did a great job and I thank publisher and editor Joe Schneider for featuring my work and introducing it to my neighbors. I met Joe last spring in conjunction with the Cheviot Art Crawl, an annual event in which artists who live in the area open their studios to the public. I plan to participate in the Art Crawl next spring.

Here is the text of the article:

Meet Cheviot resident and artist Caroline Arnold! Caroline grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spent most summers at a small camp in northern Wisconsin. It was there that she began to develop a love for nature and the outdoors (which would ultimately become her muse for her art pieces and environmentally-conscious children’s books, of which she’s written over 170 to date). Caroline attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, where she majored in art and also studied English literature. Following that, she attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, and received her M.A. in art in 1968.

Caroline began writing books for children more than twenty-five years ago when her own children were small. She illustrated a few books and then worked with photographer Richard Hewett for many years creating photo essays about animals. The books she illustrates today are inspired by her experience working with Richard. They read like true stories, following the lives of animals from birth to finding independence, and teach simple themes to children about growing up. The books have also been a major avenue to showcase Caroline’s art creations of paper cut-out shapes.

Says Caroline about her paper cut-outs: “I rely heavily on the outside edges of each piece of paper because it’s those lines that define the shapes of the objects. I use flat colors so I depend on contrasting hues and a layering process to create depth. Thicker art stock paper, when layered, gives a nice, although minute, three-dimensionality that really brings the animals to life and allows them to `pop’ off the page.”

Caroline has found that for animals that live underground or underwater, are active at night, or live in remote locations, often a drawing is better than a photograph for showing their behavior.

Says Caroline about her books: “[these books] are intended for kids in early elementary school so the pictures have to be big and bold, with a poster-effect, and fill both pages, so when a teacher reads to her class, the students can see the images clearly from the back of the room.” While the stories themselves are full of information and can be found in school libraries, they are also good for pleasure reading and are available at book retailers.

Caroline’s favorite aspect about her art is the fact that it’s so scalable: while intended as book illustration, it can also be framed or made into prints to hang on a wall. She’s also used these images to create great greeting cards.

Caroline’s paintings and drawings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and competitive shows. Caroline plans on making her Cheviot Art Crawl debut in 2019. She lives with her husband, Art (name not coincidentally on purpose), who sometimes helps with photography for her books. Their children are grown and flew the nest long ago.

To visit her works, see:

http://www.carolinearnoldbooks.com/

https://carolinearnoldportfolio.blogspot.com

BIO BLURBS for CALIFORNIA READERS: Recent Years in a Nutshell

The We Love California Authors and Illustrators Luncheon is coming up soon.  Click HERE for more information and online registration.
How many times have you been asked to prepare a bio in 50 words or less, 30 words or less, or some other seemingly impossible small number? Every year, for the California Readers luncheon, to be held this year on Saturday February 22, 2014, authors are asked to prepare a short bio to be read aloud for their introduction to the people in the audience--teachers, librarians, students, friends and other authors and illustrators.  The bios are meant to be short, and, if possible, contain some sort of twist, or surprise. I attend the luncheon almost every year, and as I looked through my computer files and read my bio blurbs for past luncheons I was reminded of the various books I've done over the past decade. A few years are missing either because I didn't attend the luncheon or I didn't save a copy of my blurb.  In any case, for highlights of my recent writing activities (and a few personal notes) here they are:
 
2013: Her newest book is TOO HOT? TOO COLD? Keeping Body Temperature Just Right.  You may not know that when Caroline was ten years old she attempted to read all the books in the public library.  Did she?  No, but she came close.

2012:  Her newest book, A WARMER WORLD, focuses on animals and how they have been impacted by climate change.  Caroline loves doing school visits.  Her favorite question came from a student who asked: If you could meet one extinct animal, what would it be?  Her, answer: a small feathered dinosaur.

2010: Her love of travel and fascination with the natural world has inspired her newest books, A POLAR BEAR'S WORLD, A WALRUS' WORLD, A MOOSE'S WORLD and A BALD EAGLE'S WORLD, all illustrated with her own cut paper art.  If she had traveled to the Arctic 65 million years ago, she might have seen dinosaurs instead of polar bears.  Read about these hardy polar reptiles in her other new book, GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DINOSAURS.

2009: Her newest books are A KOALA'S WORLD, A KANGAROO'S WORLD, A PLATYPUS' WORLD, and A WOMBAT'S WORLD, all illustrated with her own cut paper art.  Caroline recently returned to her home state of Minnesota to participate in a 5K snowshoe race. She didn’t win, but the trip helped her get in the mood for illustrating her upcoming books about Arctic animals.

2008: She had a bumper crop of new books in 2007 including WIGGLE AND WAGGLE, five stories about two hardworking worms, SUPER SWIMMERS: Whales, Dolphins and other Mammals of the Sea, GIANT SEA REPTILES OF THE DINOSAUR AGE, and TAJ MAHAL, co-written with Madeleine Comora, about the great love that inspired this magnificent building. 

2006: Her newest book is a tall tale, The TERRIBLE HODAG AND THE ANIMAL CATCHERS about a fearsome creature with the head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur and tail of an alligator.  Caroline has recently resumed her career as an artist and has four new books that she illustrated with cut paper collage.  The are all about black and white animals–pandas, zebras, killer whales and penguins–and she assures you that she cut out every single spot and stripe.

2005:  Her most recent title, PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, tells about amazing prehistoric flying reptiles with giant wing spans and difficult to pronounce names (the “p” in “pterosaur” is silent), that flew over the earth in dinosaur times.  Although most of Caroline’s books are nonfiction, she also writes fiction and has recently resumed her career as an illustrator.  She has two new board books for toddlers, WHO IS BIGGER? and WHO HAS MORE?, that she illustrated with cut paper collage.

Something About the Author

Volume 228 of SATA (Something About the Author) Gale Publications, a reference book of children’s book authors and illustrators, is scheduled to be published in July; the online version will be available a month or so later.  It includes an updated entry for me and my books, prepared by the SATA editors.  As I previewed the copy, I was impressed with the thoroughness of the research and completeness of the entry.  It is a long way from the first entry about me in SATA, Volume 28, published in 1984, which featured a photo of a very young looking me and an illustration from my second book, Electric Fish (Morrow, 1980).

In 1987, I was asked to contribute a biographical essay for the SATA Biography Series, Volume 23.  This was my first time to reflect on my career at length. (I had 10,000 words to play with, which seemed like a lot at first, but really only allowed me to cover the high points.)  The timing of the essay was ideal.  I had just published my 100th book (African Animals, Morrow 1997) and was feeling amazed at my good fortune of having made a career out of something I loved.  In my final paragraph I wrote:
This essay has provided me with the opportunity to look back over what I have accomplished, but it is also a time to look forward.  I hope to continue to write about subjects I love, including natural science and ancient cultures.  I would also like to do more writing for younger children.  Although I have not had much time to write fiction recently, I would like to do more of that and perhaps even get back to doing some illustration.  Perhaps in the future I will have the chance to do some writing for CD-ROMS and the new electronic media.  No one has a crystal ball to see in to the future.  Each project is a new adventure and often leads to opportunities not yet imagined.  The dilemma is not what to do next, but how to choose which of many paths to follow.

As I read that paragraph now, I marvel at how much has happened in the fourteen years since it was written.  I HAVE done more writing for younger children, published two fiction books, and reestablished myself as an illustrator.  But the real changes have been in the electronic world.  Again, we need a crystal ball to know where that is leading us.  Meanwhile, though, I continue writing with the confidence that there will always be a place in the world for good books for children.