BIOGRAPHIES
Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola

Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reaves, Hat & History Maker

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Andrea Pippins. From childhood in segregated Georgia to millinery school in Chicago during the Great Migration to small-business success in mid-century Philadelphia: hatmaker Mae Reeves's biography also conveys much about Black American history writ large. Rhuday-Perkovich's sonorous language ("Hats were a way for these queens to be SEEN") is further strengthened by repetition of the titular theme: "Mae, like so many, made a way out of no way." Pippins's digital art has an abstract design aesthetic befitting the fabulous hats and accessories. Material from the related Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit is appended, along with a bibliography.

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