Author and journalist Cokie Roberts visited the Library’s Young Readers Center on March 6 to read from her new children’s book, “Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation,” adapted from her bestselling adult work of the same title. Illustrated by Caldecott Honor-winning artist Diane Goode, the book features biographies of 10 influential women from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Third-grade students from Seaton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., listened to Roberts read in the Young Readers Center while students from elementary schools in Arkansas and Pennsylvania listened to a video recording that was streamed live. Roberts took questions from students in all the locations.
A student from Pennsylvania asked her why she decided to write about women. “If you only know about half of the human race, and not the other half of the human race, you don’t know the whole story,” she responded.
Everybody Wins! DC, a nonprofit that promotes children’s literacy, cosponsored the reading, which took place as part of the Library’s observance of Women’s History Month. Everybody Wins! DC is a longtime partner of the Library’s Center for the Book, and Library staff members have served as reading mentors to students at a nearby elementary school for the past seven years.