Tiny Jumper : How Tiny Broadwick Created the Parachute Rip Cord, by Candy Dahl/Illustrated by Maithili Joshi, (Oct. 2023, Little Bee Books), $18.99, ISBN: 9781499813944
Ages 4-8
Just when you think you’ve read the all coolest biographies of female innovators, Candy Dahl and Maithili Joshi prove you wrong. In 1893, Georgia Ann Thompson was born, weighing only 3 pounds, but her impact is still felt today. Nicknamed “Tiny” because of her diminutive size, she set out to climb up: up tobacco leaves and cotton mill machinery in her childhood jobs; up trees as she dreamed of getting away from tobacco fields and cotton mills; and up, up, up into the air as an aeronaut, after seeing Charles Broadwick rise up in a hot-air balloon and parachute to the earth. Tiny learned from Broadwick and became famous, touring the country and performing daring feats. Pushing the envelope, she became the first woman to parachute from an airplane and created the parachute ripcord when one of her jumps encountered problems. Dahl uses quotes from Broadwick to allow readers to step into her shoes and experience the excitement and the bumps and bruises of the aerialist: “I had broken bones an dislocated shoulders… I loved it. I loved the excitement” and how women were treated at the time: “It burned me up having to dress like a baby doll and having that name tacked on me!” An author’s note provides further detail on Tiny’s life; a bibliography provides more resources for further reading. The State Archives of North Carolina provides a lesson plan on Broadwick and publisher Little Bee offers downloadable activity sheets on their webpage. A good addition to picture book biographies!
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