Piece by Piece: Ernestine's Gift for President Roosevelt

by Lupe Ruiz-Flores, Anna López Real (Illustrator)

Overview

During the Great Depression, Ernestine Guerrero's family didn't have much.

The Mexican American teen was so grateful for the government food aid they received in San Antonio, Texas, that she wanted to personally thank President Roosevelt. But how? After seeing the plans for a very difficult woodworking project, she decided she would make it herself and send it to the president. Piece by piece, that's exactly what she did. And the clock case she built remains on display in the Roosevelt Presidential Library to this day.

With stunning illustrations from Anna López Real, this picture book tells the inspiring true story of a girl who proved that if you look closely, treasure can be found in unexpected places.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798765602058
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lupe Ruiz-Flores is the author of six bilingual picture books. She is a former Regional Advisor for the Southwest Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and until recently its newsletter editor. Lupe has won the SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant, the SCBWI/Amazon Work-in-Progress Grant, and the SCBWI Martha Weston Award. She is a member of the Writers League of Texas, Texas Library Association, Las Musas, and Kindling Words. She was awarded the Tejas Star Book Award for three consecutive years. Her poetry and short stories have been published in anthologies, including Thanku: Poems of Gratitude. She was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
Anna López Real is a freelance illustrator based in Guadalajara, Mexico. She spent her early years in a small town with a big lake, in a bilingual home full of books, movies, diverse music and art. She has a BD in Graphic Design from Universidad de Guadalajara. Since she was young, she has needed to feel colors, shadows, textures and shapes with her own hands, which inspired her to use traditional techniques. She is also the co-founder of a local stationary company. She is passionate about human rights, animal rights and has a great love for nature.

Editorial Reviews

"This inspirational story celebrates a young girl's creativity and ingenuity during a challenging time in American history. Recommended for elementary school library collections."—Children's Literature

From the Publisher

2023-06-08
The true story of an elaborate clock case that a young Mexican American resident of San Antonio made for Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a thank-you gift.

A gingerbread fantasy crafted from 156 pieces of sugar pine crates saved from New Deal food deliveries, the 40-inch-high case sits today in the FDR Presidential Library. It was made in 1937 in recognition of help received during the Great Depression, and here Ruiz-Flores spins news stories and interviews with surviving family members into an affecting account of how young Ernestine Guerrero, a carpenter’s daughter and helper, taught herself woodworking techniques and then painstakingly cut and assembled the case. Neither the author nor López Real seems to know much about carpentry—Guerrero would have needed more than just a coping saw and a chisel, the only tools she’s actually shown using, to carve many of the work’s “interlaced decorative designs”—but in the pictures her serious figure exudes determination, and the finished project is both magnificent and (as a photo at the end shows) accurately rendered. The letter to the president that she composed to go with the gift, which is excerpted in the narrative and shown in full at the end, is likewise marvelous: “This is the best I have ever done in my life. I know that you have many pretty things, but please accept and keep this piece of work from a poor girl that doesn’t have anything….” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A small but feel-good historical anecdote. (author’s note, glossary, source notes, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews