CT AUTHORS PROFILE CT 19TH CENTURY SUFFRAGETTES
Smith Sisters are Topic of New Children’s Book

 GLASTONBURY—Children’s Book authors Iris Van Rynbach and Pegi Deitz Shea have teamed up to bring to life two world-famous Glastonbury activists, Abby and Julia Smith,  in a new picture book, The Taxing Case of the Cows: A True Story About Suffrage.  The book—for readers 6-up—is illustrated by Newbery Medalist Emily Arnold McCully.
 
“The feisty Smith sisters and their cows provide a fresh and humorous chapter in the history of women’s suffrage. It will have readers of all ages cheering out loud,” says Dinah Stevenson, Vice President and Publisher of Clarion Books, a prestigious imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
 
Nearly 100 years after the Revolutionary War, one major battle raged on: “Taxation without Representation.” Women hadn’t won the right to vote, even on matters that affected them directly. In 1869, Abby and Julia Smith of Glastonbury were unfairly taxed on their large and fertile Connecticut River front property. The male town leaders had only taxed female landowners. To everyone’s shock, the elderly unmarried women refused to pay, since they hadn’t had a voice in the decision. In response, the tax collector took away their beloved Alderney cows—but not for long. The Smith sisters battled in cow barns and courts for more equality, and newspaper around the world followed the saga.

Iris Van Rynbach, longtime Glastonbury resident researched, wrote and actually sold a version of this story, complete with a sketch dummy, more than ten years ago. However, the publisher was swept up in a huge merger, and the project was orphaned and shelved. Van Rynbach, an award-winning author and illustrator of more than a dozen books, numerous covers of New Yorker magazine, and features for the Hartford Courant, forged on with her other projects.
 
But the Smith sisters wouldn’t sit silently on that shelf, and kept calling her. In 2008, Van Rynbach dusted off the project only to find that the world of picture books had changed. While Stevenson liked the story, she wanted a much shorter and “younger” text. Van Rynbach turned to Vernon resident, Pegi Deitz Shea, who has written many award-winning historical fiction and nonfiction books. Her most recent picture book, Noah Webster: Weaver of Words, is an Orbis Pictus Honor Book, awarded by the National Council of Teachers of English, and a Junior Library Guild selection.
 
Together, the authors rewrote the story several times, going from about 2500 words to 800. The Taxing Case of the Cows, due out this fall, has already been chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection. It’s also nominated for the Notable Lists of the Children’s Book Council/National Council for the Social Studies, an award won several times by both Van Rynbach and Deitz Shea.
 
Van Rynbach explains,” So at last after many years The Taxing Case of the Cows, A true Story About Suffrage is here for us all to enjoy. I am so pleased with this collaboration and I hope the readers will be also. Abby and Julia Smith waited many years in their fight for justice and it took me many years to tell their story. That is what it takes to follow one’s convictions.”
 
Another publishing trend is to pair up famous illustrators, such as Emily Arnold McCully, with projects that appeal to libraries and schools. This practice broadens the market, making the book more appealing to parents who shop at book stores and online book vendors.
 
“It’s hard for books about history to compete with ‘Wimpy Kids,’ wizards, and vampires,” said Deitz Shea. “But every librarian, bookseller, teacher, and lots of parents already know Emily Arnold McCully’s reputation.”  She has illustrated more than 40 books for young readers, including Eve Bunting’s The Banshee. She received the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire and a Christopher Award for Picnic.”
 
Van Rynbach and Shea are eager to bring the Smith sisters alive in as many classrooms and libraries as possible. Like Noah Webster, the Smith Sisters of Glastonbury are home-grown heroes with world-wide acclaim.
 
For more information, please go to www.irisvanrynbach.com and www.pegideitzshea.com.  An online catalog of Clarion’s books can be found at www.hmhbooks.com.

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Travel News:
Iris will lead a group of art lovers to Paris, France, in mid-April 2011.

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Teaching news:
Iris teaches The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, in her Glastonbury studio, at MCC. and at The Glastonbury Art Guild.

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