Shana Keller

Polly misses her father, a soldier fighting in France during World War I, and at home everything is rationed; Polly wants to do her part to help, so she and her friends organize a parade to collect peach pits which are used in the manufacture of gas masks.

In 1873, Jan Ernst Matzeliger immigrated to America with dreams of a bright future. Though he was highly skilled with tools and machinery, no one wanted to hire a Black immigrant who didn't speak English. Jan finally got a job at a shoe factory and learned the process of shoemaking. He envisioned a new machine, a lasting machine, that would help produce more shoes more efficiently. People scoffed at Jan's idea, but he wasn't deterred. Despite many...