Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant, Kate and M. Sarah Klise
ISBN: 9780803734043
Read December 2, 2013
Picture Book (SC Picture Book Award Winner for 2012-2013)
Ella Kate was perfectly normal, until she turned seven. After that, she grew at an astonishing rate, eventually topping out at 8'4" with size 24 shoes.
Beginning at age 17, she took her unusual height and used it to make a profit, working for a Chicago museum of oddities and making $1000 in a single month (which is an INSANE amount of money for anyone in 1890, let alone a 17 year old girl).
She got a taste of the wide world outside her small-town plains homestead, and continued touring for almost 20 years before her death at age 40.
The illustrations by Sarah Klise are deceptively simple - the expressions on the faces are spot-on and the body language is likewise quite deft for the otherwise flat "naive" illustrations. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the endpapers, where various factoids about Ella Kate are illustrated and recorded - everything from a full-size recreation of a glove, to her shoe-size, to the height of her dresser.
The story is told straightforwardly, with no extra sentimentality or excess, which I think well-suits what we're shown of Ella Kate's actual character. The story wisely ends with her on tour, planning to see as much of the world as possible, leaving it to the nonfiction coda (complete with an actual photograph) to tell about the end of her life.
Excellent for storytime, or for kids interested in "larger than life" folklore heroes or fairy-tale giants.
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