Biography

The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History / Karen Valby

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
By: Karen Valby
Genre: Nonfiction, History, Dance
Number of Pages: 320
Published: February 11, 2025 (1st Published April 30, 2024)
Publisher: Vintage
Dates Read: April 19, 2026 - April 21, 2026
Format: Paperback			ISBN: 9780593469668

This nonfiction history book tells the story of five black ballerinas that were a part of the international dance company of the Dance Theatre of Harlem: Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton, Marcia Sells, and Lydia Abarca, who was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover, cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. 

After decades of almost no record of their groundbreaking history, these five Swans of Harlem come together to tell their story of their chosen family during the years of dancing during the height of the Civil Rights movement.

I’m going to be honest and state that I was pretty worried about this read for my book group because I have such a hard time with nonfiction, but this is a very chill narrative nonfiction. Each chapter sometimes focused on one ballerina and her story, but other times it would focus on the company itself, racism in the arts, or Arthur Mitchell (the founder of DTH), who, though he gave these women opportunities that didn’t exist elsewhere, he was super toxic. You do learn a lot about the history and what was currently going on and such, but some of the things he did made my skin crawl.

This book talks about how Misty Copeland has gotten the title of “The First Black Ballerina” and how there were those before her that should really get that title. It really made me appreciate that, even though this is almost 70 years later black women’s stories are still being told and shared.

Overall, this is a wonderful book that talks about both the ballerinas and the dance company of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and how their dancing was impacted by the ballet community, racism and discrimination, friendship, the effects of verbal abuse, the AIDS epidemic, and the beautiful bond of sisterhood and family forged around their ballet slippers.

At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom / Erin Entrada Kelly, Ferdelle Capistrano (Narrator)

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At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom
By: Erin Entrada Kelly, Ferdelle Capistrano (Narrator)
Genre: Middle Grade, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 208
Published: May 6, 2025
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Dates Read: August 8, 2025
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

In this novel, you learn about Josefina “Joey” Guerrero, a guerrilla fighter, a spy, a Medal of Freedom recipient, Hansen’s disease survivor, teacher, and peacemaker. Told with historical photos as well as key themes and moments in history, readers will learn about a piece of WWII that many probably haven’t heard about.

Learning (yet again) something new in 2025 about WWII. I wasn’t too familiar with the Philippines in WWII, so I absolutely hadn’t heard of Joey Guerrero, but I adore Erin Entrada Kelly’s writing and once I saw she was writing a nonfiction about someone, I knew it was important that I knew who Joey was.

What a remarkable woman Joey was. She never let anything stop her, or slow her down. Her life wasn’t picture perfect, but she’d accept it and keep going. She was resourceful too – knowing she wouldn’t get checked as much because of her disease. It was kind of crappy how the US treated her after everything she did (but in all honesty, it doesn’t surprise me…)

Overall, though this book is aimed at middle grade readers, I still think older readers would enjoy it. As a woman in her 30’s, I found the breakdown of information a lot more digestible than older history books.

*Thank you Greenwillow Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Guardian of Fukushima / Fabien Grolleau, Ewen Blain (Illustrator)

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Guardian of Fukushima
By: Fabien Grolleau, Ewen Blain (Illustrator)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 144
Published: February 23, 2023
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Dates Read: October 28, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

On March 11, 2011 a massive earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami, which in turn, destroyed the core three reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Farmer Naoto Matsumura is unwilling to abandon his beloved animals and the animals left behind by those who evacuated. 

I love the weaving of Japanese folklore into this story to not only give you a history of the very tragic event of the 2011 tsunami, but to also give you the history of Japanese culture as well.

I was aware of a farmer staying behind in a village after a nuclear issue, but I wasn’t aware of Naoto Matsumura’s full story and I’m so glad I picked this novel up to read it. 

Stunning and amazing artwork from Ewen Blain. So colorful and captivating, even the not-so-great- photos of the aftermath, it never looked muddy or overloaded.