Skip to main content

Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse

By

 


Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse
Written by Elizabeth Spires
Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
Holiday House.2021. Biography

Kate Kaird, an immigrant who left Germany in 1882 moved to America with her young son Jacob and eventually became one of the first lighthouse keepers on the Eastern Seaboard. Her journey began when she met and married John Walker and they moved to Robbins Reef lighthouse in New York harbor. Her husband was given the job as lighthouse keeper and she became the assistant keeper. At first she hated the lighthouse and she wasn't sure she could live in such a lonely place but she eventually adapted and learned to love the peace and quiet of the lighthouse. When her husband died she convinced the lighthouse board to let her stay on until a man could be hired. Four years later she was hired as permanent keeper making her one of the first women to be put in charge of a lighthouse. Kate took care of the lighthouse and lived there for 33 years and rescued more than fifty people.

I love lighthouses and I'm fascinated with the stories of lighthouse keepers. The gorgeous watercolor and ink illustrations really capture the beauty of the water and sky and create beautiful scenes full of color and expression. I also enjoyed reading the additional information at the end about Kate. This is a very distinctive book that highlights an unknown heroine who continued to "mind the light" something her husband encouraged her to do. A great book to read during Women's History Month.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dragon Run

By
Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013.  336 pgs.  Fantasy      Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life.  He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines.  Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...
1 comment
Read more

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

By
Painting for Peace in Ferguson By Carol Swartout Klein Treehouse Publishing Group, 2015. Nonfiction. When the city of Ferguson was overrun with so much hate and despair that homes and businesses had to be boarded up to protect property, citizens of the community decided to bring a message of hope by painting the boarded windows. Klein’s rhyming text supports the photographs of the hundreds of artists and volunteers and their artwork as they bring the messages of peace, hope, love, and that by being united they can make a difference. A great book to show children how a community rallied to make a positive change and that even a small gesture can make a huge difference. A great discussion opener on how we should treat each other.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

By
  The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...
Post a Comment
Read more