Sarah Mirkin

From Bedtime Stories: Beautiful Black Tales from the Past, Scholastic 2021

Have you ever heard of the Krios of Freetown? Well, if you haven’t, then I, Sarah, the author, am partly Krio, so there is one Krio for you already. Let me take you back to the beginning and what might have happened to my great, great, great, great grandparents.

Some Krios were those who had been kidnapped and sold on to slave ships that were stopped in the middle of the ocean. Other Krios were poor Black people from London who were rehomed in Sierra Leone, and yet another group were called “Maroons” – those living in Jamaica who had fought against the British. Lastly, there were the “Black Loyalists”, freed slaves who had helped the British fight against the Americans in the American Revolution. All of these different people came together to make the Krio culture, and all of them looked for freedom in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The surprising thing is that even though they did not all come from one country or share one language, they had to get on, as life here was better than being slaves. Krio culture is like a mix of strawberry jam, pear juice, vanilla ice cream and chocolate chunks that you will think doesn’t work but it works.

Empress Jingū

From Queens: 3,000 Years of the Most Incredible Women in History by Victoria Crossman, Scholastic 2020

Empress Jingū was a fabled queen who is said to have lived in third-century Japan. Legend has it that she was the wife of Emperor Chūai, and after his death became empress regent for her son, Ōjin.

Jingū was said to be a shaman priestess who would go into trance-like states and communicate with the gods. She reigned during a period of unrest in Japan. When her husband died, she had declared war on Silla, a kingdom in ancient Korea. According to legend, she could control the tides by means of some magical jewels, which she used to defeat the Sillan army that was attacking her warships.

Stories are told that Jingū was pregnant by her husband before she set off for war. When she returned, the baby was born, after Jingū had been pregnant for three years! Some say that the child, Ōjin, was the Shinto god of war, Hachiman, and so was able to wait to be born when the war was over.

Many centuries later, in 1881, Jingū was the first woman to be featured on a Japanese bank note. But historians continue to question the existence of Empress Jingū, and in 1947 her name was removed from the official list of Japanese rulers.

Kalpana Chawla

From Girl Power: Indian Women Who Took On the World by Neha Hiranandani, Scholastic 2020

Once, there was a girl in Haryana who didn’t have a name. Her parents nicknamed her Montu, but her teacher said she needed a real one. The little girl said, “I will be Kalpana” – choosing a name which means imagination. Soon, the little girl with the big imagination began to think about space. She loved looking at the stars and drawing aeroplanes.

Once during a mathematics class in school, Kalpana’s teacher was explaining null sets or empty sets. “A set of Indian women astronauts is a null set as there are none,” said the teacher, as an example. Kalpana replied, “But ma’am, one day this set may not be empty!” Kalpana made sure to fill the empty set. When she was just twenty-six years old, she joined NASA, the American agency that conducts space research.

Before long, she became the first Indian woman to travel to space! She was selected for exciting missions where she rocketed out of Earth and worked the robotic arms of a spaceship. While on board Space Shuttle Columbia, Kalpana spoke to I K Gujral, the then Indian prime minister. “The view of the Himalayas is magnificent!” she exclaimed, looking at India from space. She promised him that she would visit India when she returned to Earth.

Unfortunately, minutes before the shuttle was supposed to land on our planet, an accident occurred killing everyone on board. From the girl without a name, Kalpana went on to have many things named after her – streets, asteroids and supercomputers.

Hamdi Ulukaya

From Dream Big by Sally Morgan, Scholastic 2019

Hamdi Ulukaya grew up in Turkey, herding sheep to make cheese and yoghurt with his Kurdish family. He went to school to study to be a teacher but left before he had fi nished his education. Hamdi became involved in political organizations that spoke up for the rights of Kurdish people who had suffered from persecution in Turkey and throughout the Middle East.

Hamdi moved to the United States to study. His father suggested that he should start a cheese factory. It was hard at fi rst and Hamdi worried a lot about how he would be able to pay his employees each month, but he persevered.

In 2005, Hamdi saw a sales listing for a yoghurt factory. He took out a small business loan and bought the factory. He called his company ‘Chobani’, which means ‘shepherd’. At this time, Greek yoghurt made up about 2% of all the yoghurt sold in the US – today, Greek yoghurt makes up over 50% of the market and much of that is due to Hamdi’s company. Chobani now makes and distributes yoghurt all over the world.

Hamdi believes that employers have a responsibility to look after their employees. He pays good wages and gives employees shares in Chobani. Hamdi speaks up for the rights of workers and refugees, and has pledged to donate the majority of his wealth to refugee causes.