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)
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)
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