I'm so grateful to An Open Book Foundation and the staff of DCScholarsPCS for giving me the chance to talk with 3rd and 4th graders in Washington, DC, about public art and our book Who Needs a Statue?
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"We Don't Need Trump's Statue Collection. We Already Have One" published by Boston Globe Magazine10/29/2025 The Boston Globe Magazine just published my essay about the Capitol statue collection, which arose from our picture book, WHO NEEDS A STATUE? America Doesn't Need Trump's $40 Million Statue Collection. We Already Have One That the States Paid for.   Who Needs a Statue? won the 2025 Notable Books for a Global World Award from the ILA for “outstanding books for readers in PreK to 12th grades that provide a variety of perspectives, lived experiences, and authentic stories showing the depth of global identities.”
Who Needs a Statue? by Eve LaPlante and Margy Burns Knight. Illus. by Alix Delinois (2024). Tilbury House Publishers. Did you know that the United States Capitol houses 100 statues, two from each of the 50 states? Until 2000, when Congress allowed states to replace their statues, every statue but ten represented a white man. Even after 25 years of this policy change, only nine statues now depict people of color and just 12 feature women. Across the country, statues are being added and removed, prompting the question: Who needs a statue? The authors feature state statues of women and people of color, prompting readers to reconsider whose stories history remembers. Among these are Barbara Jordan, the first African American woman elected to the Texas State Senate, and labor activists fighting for immigrant farmers, Dolores Huerta and César Chávez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers movement in 1962. With detailed backmatter providing further information on each person represented, this timely book reminds us that history isn’t just about who has been remembered; it’s also about who should be. (Gr 3 Up) Thank you to DeWolf Fulton and folks in Bristol, Rhode Island, who invited me to give this year's Bosworth Lecture about Anne Hutchinson, to InkWood Books for selling copies of American Jezebel and Who Needs a Statue? and to Dave Weed for videotaping and posting the lecture on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-0iDXbUu4Ds  The Bosworth Lecture at the First Congregational Church in Bristol, Rhode Island
Margy, Alix, and I just heard that Booklist will give Who Needs a Statue? a starred review. Excerpts from the upcoming review: “Innovative... This inclusive and fresh approach to communities will pep up local history collections... Expressive illustrations captured with a dynamic color palate portray kids posing next to sculptures, imitating poses, or seemingly engaged in conversation, adding immediacy to the bronze and marble works.”
 WHO NEEDS A STATUE?
BY EVE LAPLANTE & MARGY BURNS KNIGHT; ILLUSTRATED BY ALIX DELINOIS ‧ OCT. 15, 2024 A gallery of intrepid American groundbreakers, pathfinders, and activists who have earned commemorative statues. Starting at the U.S. Capitol and ranging as far afield as an airport in Austin, Texas, and a park in Napa, California, the book covers more than a dozen figures—all either women, people of color, or both—who have been immortalized in stone or bronze. Many of the names will likely be unfamiliar to young readers. Beginning with Thocmetony Sarah Winnemucca, the first published Native American woman author, and continuing on past the inspirational likes of Anne Hutchinson (who was banished from colonial Massachusetts for illegally teaching men), comet discoverer Maria Mitchell, and Olympians and activists Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each entry features a brief but sonorous initial annotation and a more detailed one in the backmatter that identifies the statues’ sculptors. Delinois’ painterly images don’t always capture the individual style or character of the monuments the way photos would have, but he does take advantage of his medium to add homey or historical flourishes, such as a view of Deborah Sampson—who dressed in men’s clothes in order to fight in the American Revolution—blasting away at a group of redcoats and an image of a child in a wheelchair seated next to a chatty effigy of Everglades advocate Marjory Stoneman Douglas in a garden near Miami. An oblique closing reference to commemorative statues being removed or replaced in many localities ends this powerful recitation on a cogent note. Deserving but less prominent luminaries shine more brightly here. (Informational picture book. 7-10)
 Announcing my first book for children, Who Needs A Statue? coauthored by Margy Burns Knight with full-color illustrations by Alix Delinois! Did you know the U.S. Capitol Building features one hundred statues, two from each state? Whom did states choose, and why? How well do they represent our multifaceted country? Who Needs A Statue? takes readers from the Capitol Building on a tour of the country in search of statues of brave women and people of color.  The American Jezebel ebook is Amazon's #70 bestseller overall and the #1 bestseller in:
History of the U.S./United States History Women in History History of LGBTQ+ & Gender Studies/Women's Studies Biographies & Memoirs of Women Historical U.S. Biographies Go, Anne! |
AuthorEve is the author of Who Needs A Statue?, Seized, American Jezebel, Marmee & Louisa, and Salem Witch Judge. Archives
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