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player ready...Ever since her first book for young readers, 1984’s “Susan B. Anthony,” Highland Park author Ilene Cooper has maintained an emphasis on informing her youthful audience about feminism and politics.
That’s certainly true of her most recent book, “A Woman in the House (and Senate)” (Harry N. Abrams, 2014)— a history of important female politicians in the U.S. Congress. The book was a finalist for the 2015 Children’s Nonfiction award of the Society of Midland Authors.
“I think a lot of kids have no idea that there was a time when women couldn’t vote and weren’t allowed to serve as elected officials in the Congress,” Cooper said. “Or how difficult it was for the trailblazers.”
“A Woman in the House” is somewhere in the vicinity of Cooper’s 40th book — she’s lost track — a mix of fiction (including her perennially popular “The Golden Rule”) and non-fiction, all written for young readers. In addition to writing books for kids, she has also reviewed them for decades as a staffer for Booklist. She began her career as a children’s librarian at the Winnetka Public Library.
“I’ve always loved children’s books,” Cooper said. “There was a wonderful librarian at the Rogers Park library when I was growing up, who was the best storyteller and always put the right book in your hand. I think I was very much affected by that.
“Then I really became enthralled with them when I was working as a children’s librarian. The more I was immersed in that world, the more I thought I could write them also.”
Cooper’s original concept for “A Woman in the House” was a handful of stories about key figures such as Jeannette Rankin (the first woman elected to Congress, in 1916), Margaret Chase Smith (an outspoken opponent of McCarthyism) and Hillary Clinton. But she soon realized she couldn’t write about them without providing some historical context for the times in which they served.
“That meant the book had to be more than a collection of biographical sketches,” Cooper said. “It also had to be about what was happening in the country, decade by decade, when these women served.”
Doing that research led Cooper to a personal appreciation of one of the subjects in her books, Michigan congresswoman Martha Griffiths. Griffiths was instrumental in changing the law that, before 1962, had prevented women’s social security benefits from being passed on to their families after their deaths. The change took effect just in time for Cooper to receive educational support after her mother died unexpectedly while the author was in high school.
“She made it possible for me to go to college,” Cooper said.
More about Ilene Cooper and her work at http://www.ilenecooper.comhttp://www.ilenecooper.com.