The Horn Book Guide

BIOGRAPHIES

Gilliland, Judith Heide

Steamboat!: The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers

40 pp. | DK Ink/Kroupa | March, 2000 | Trade ISBN 0-7894-2585-8 $$16.95

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Holly Meade. This picture-book biography of the country's first female steamboat captain portrays the river-loving Blanche first as a child and then as a young woman whose husband, a steamboat captain, teaches her the mysterious, unpredictable ways of the Mississippi. Exuberantly colored cut-paper art effectively realizes the three central characters of the story: Blanche, the river, and the romantic steamboat itself.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2000