About
What do windmills and a 1421 flood in Holland, Shakespeare and pickpockets, several American women who didn’t behave themselves, and a dozen African Americans fired up by Revolutionary rhetoric – have in common? They are all the subjects of books written by Gretchen Woelfle – picture books and historical fiction, environmental nonfiction, and biographies. She’s won two Eureka! awards from the California Reading Association; and awards from the Children’s Literature Council, the L.A. Museum of Tolerance and the PEN Center, to name just a few. When Gretchen is not traveling the world hunting for new stories, she lives in Los Angeles writing more biographies of unconventional characters.
Publications:
Answering the Cry for Freedom: Stories of African Americans and the American Revolution, Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, 2016
Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence, Carolrhoda/Lerner, 2014
The Wind at Work: An Activity Guide to Windmills, Chicago Review Press, 1997, 2013 (2nd edition)
Write On, Mercy! The Secret Life of Mercy Otis Warren Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, 2012
All the World’s A Stage: A Novel in Five Acts, Holiday House, 2011
Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer, Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek 2007
Animal Families, Animal Friends, NorthWord Books, 2005
Katje, the Windmill Cat, Candlewick Press, 2001
Stories From Where We Live: The Great Lakes, Milkweed Editions, 2003
Stories From Where We Live: The California Coast, Milkweed, 2001
Stories From Where We Live: The Great North American Prairie, 2001
Stories from Where We Live: The North Atlantic Coast, Milkweed, 2000
Featured Work
Answering the Cry for Freedom: Stories of African Americans and the American Revolution
Liberty is a difficult concept to define and becomes even more complex in the context of American history. Woelfle, an award-winning author of nonfiction, examines the challenges and contradictions of life for African Americans in the founding era—a time period supposedly defined by its quest for freedom. Short biographies of 13 eighteenth-century figures fill thematic sections on soldiers, women, and activists. The people included range from the obscure, such as patriot sailor Paul Cuffe, to the infamous, such as Sally Hemings, slave and mother of Thomas Jefferson’s children. Using these biographies as archetypes, Woelfle asserts that African Americans were not the one-dimensional slave figures so often painted in history books, but rather represented a range of vocations and political philosophies. This outstanding book is not just a history of African Americans, but rather an honest look at the complicated, often
hypocritical definitions that Americans have ascribed to the idea of liberty from our earliest days.
— Booklist review
