WILPF of San Jose, California

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
and San Jose Raging Grannies

Paula Rochelle, Saratoga resident and WILPF member, arranged with librarian Peggy Baker for the Saratoga Library to feature the six 2008 winners of WILPF's Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington's Slave Finds Freedom, the winner in the Books for Younger Children Category, is written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully and published by Farrar Strauss Giroux. Mrs. Washington declares that young Oney is just like one of the Washington's own children, but Oney is not fooled. On the night Mrs. Washington tells Oney she will not grant her freedom upon her death, Oney thinks quickly, acts courageously and flees. Expressive watercolors within this well-researched biography portray the bravery of Ona Maria Judge, an African-American woman who claimed, and fought for, the right to have "no mistress but herself."

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin by Larry Dane Brimner, published by Calkins Creek, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc., is the winner in the Books for Older Children Category.
Working behind the scenes because of his sexual orientation and unpopular political stands, African-American pacifist and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a trusted adviser to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Succinct prose, powerful quotations and fresh historical photographs place the story of Rustin's life alongside the story of the March, revealing the breadth and depth of Rustin's decades of commitment to confronting racism and promoting peace in the United States and in countries around the world.

One book has won honors in the Books for Younger Children Category.
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge is published by Hyperion Books for Children. After discovering one thousand yellowed foot tracings in her grandmother's attic, Lita Judge wrote this tribute to her grandmother who had used these newspaper tracings to find appropriately-sized shoes to send to needy German families in the aftermath of World War II. A combination of paintings, collages of original photographs and reproductions of foot tracings underscore the message of compassion at the heart of this family story.

Three books have won honors in the Books for Older Children category.
Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins, with illustrations by Jamie Hogan and published by Charlesbridge, is a contemporary novel set in Bangladesh. In clear prose and detailed black-and-white drawings, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting alpanas, traditional designs created by Bangladeshi women and girls. Her talent, though valued by her family, cannot buy rice or pay back the loan on her father's rickshaw as a son's contribution would do. Determined to help financially, Naimi disguises herself as a boy and sparks surprising events that reveal an expanding world for herself and women in her community.

Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Paula Rochelle, left, and Joan Goddard, background, arranged for the display of the books.

Joan Goddard, a Campbell resident and national board member of the Jane Addams Peace Association, displays books with librarian Peggy Baker. (Joan Bazar photos)

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., is a sensitively-written historical novel infused with the spirit of youth. Eleven-year-old Elijah bursts with pride at being the first child born free in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just across the border from Detroit. When a scoundrel steals money saved to buy an enslaved family's freedom, Elijah impulsively pursues the thief into Michigan. The journey brings him face-to-face with the terrors of slavery, pushing him to act courageously and compassionately in the name of freedom.

Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford is published by Wordsong, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc. Deftly-written free verse and expertly-chosen archival photographs lay open the horror of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing by telling the story in the voice of an imagined girl in the "year I turned ten." Four memorial poems, each a tribute to one of the four girls murdered in the bombing, conclude this slim, powerful volume and carry its emphatic message: No More Birminghams!
Since 1953, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award annually acknowledges books published in the U.S. during the previous year. Books commended by the Award address themes or topics that engage children in thinking about peace, justice, world community, and/or equality of the sexes and all races. The books also must meet conventional standards of literary and artistic excellence.

A national committee chooses winners and honor books for older and younger children. Members of the 2007 Jane Addams Children's Book Awards Committee are Susan C. Griffith, Chair (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan), Barbara Bair (Washington, D. C.), Ann Bower (Harwich, Massachusetts), Sonja Cherry-Paul (Yonkers, New York), Eliza T. Dresang (Tallahassee, Florida), Oralia Garza de Cortes (Pasadena, California), MJ Grande (Juneau, Alaska), Daisy Gutierrez (Houston, Texas), Margaret Jensen (Madison, Wisconsin), Jo Montie (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Sarah Park (Long Beach, California), Pat Wiser (Sewanee,Tennessee) and Junko Yokota (Skokie, Illinois). Regional reading and discussion groups participated with many of the committee members throughout the jury's evaluation and selection process.

Contact JAPA Executive Director Linda B. Belle, 777 United Nations Plaza, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017-3521; by phone 212-682-8830; and by e-mail japa@igc.org.
For additional information about the Jane Addams Children's Book Awards and a complete list of books honored since 1953, see www.janeaddamspeace.org.

The satellite war machine The people of California are hosts to Vandenberg Air Force Base, sprawling over 198,000 acres of coastal land in Santa Barbara County.Deadly missiles, battleships and ground military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are guided by polar satellites launched from Vandenberg.

MacGregor Eddy, a Monterey County WILPF activist and nurse spoke in San Jose. The event in the Fireside Room of the Unitarian Church, 160 N. Third St., San Jose, was co-sponsored by WILPF San Jose, the San Jose Peace Center and the church’s social justice committee.

MacGregor Eddy, at right, center,was arrested in a protest at Vandenberg.

From tea to political action Over scones and tea, WILPF and the Raging Grannies and guests discussed their priorities for the federal budget, and -- surprise -- they opted for health care, education, housing, prison reform and other life-enhancing uses of the tax money.

Cards signed by the partygoers requesting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein reject a proposed "missile defense" test that would take millions of dollars better spent for human needs were delivered to her San Francisco office by a delegation on Thursday (5/25/06). Roz Dean (left) presented the cards to a staff member.

We followed up on the strong push for health care by attending a Santa Clara City Council meeting Tuesday (5/23) to promote a request for endorsement of SB 840, State Sen. Sheila Kuehl's bill for health care for all Californians. The council declined to take action, but the mayor said she'd keep track of the bill.

Jean Salmon joined Health Care for All California members Jean Embree, David Wald and Carol Dalrymple outside the Santa Clara City Council chambers after losing the vote on the endorsement request. Joan Goddard and Joan Bazar of WILPF San Jose Branch also attended to show support.

Women and the U.S. Budget: Where the Money Goes and What You Can Do About It
Author Jane Midgley speaks in Santa Clara

The national budget represents the common resources of the people of the United States. Yet only a handful of experts understand the full impact of budget policy on the American people. Since women comprise just a fraction of national decision-makers, women's needs and perspectives are largely left out of budget policy - a critical absence during our current era of rising deficits, increasing military and security budgets, and cutbacks in public investment. Jane Midgley is third from the left -->

EL AGUA

Cuidemos amigos la piel del planeta
Y tambien los ríos que existen en ellas
El agua que llevan en sus causes/arterias
Cual sangre preciosa su cuerpo alimenta
Y del mar los peces la vida sustentan
Nubes maternales nuestros cielos engendra
!La sangre que nutre nuestro azul planeta!

Let's take care friends not only of the planet's skin
but also of the rivers existing in it.

The water their arteries carry,
with blood nourishes Earth's lung.

Beautiful fishes sing their best song
for water gives them excellent dishes
and a wonderful home.

Motherly clouds from heaven our lands spray
Let's take care of water 'cause life it generates.

Let's take care of that precious blood,
so that life in our blue planet never stops.

• spends at least $16,000 in promotional costs alone for each single soldier signed up -- one-and-a-half times the amount the Chicago Public School Systems spent in 2002 to educate a child.
• has a database of 30 million 16- to 25-year olds, combining names with birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, field of academic study, grade-point averages, height and weight.