WOW Review: Volume XVII, Issue 1 • Page 5 of 12 • Worlds of Words

Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman
Written by Sharice Davids with Nancy K. Mays
Illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley
HarperCollins, 2021, 40 pp (unpaged)
ISBN: 9780062979667

Everyone has dreams and passions–Sharice Davids is no different. This book is about her road to victory to become one of the first Indigenous women to be elected to Congress and the first LGBTQ person to represent Kansas. She learned early on that everyone encounters obstacles along their way to achievements, but with hard work, anything is possible.

Sharice Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk nation, an Indigenous tribe in Wisconsin. When she was a young girl, people would ask her at school, “What are you?” This question led her down a path of self-discovery. She became a proud, strong, brave Indigenous woman. She was raised by a single mom, a 20-year army veteran, and learned to value hard work and discipline. She also learned how to talk to others because she moved around a lot and had to make new friends often. This helped her develop the valuable skill of listening to others and discovering what was important to them.

Davids is a first-generation college graduate, and earned her law degree from Cornell Law School. From there she went on to practice law but didn’t feel she was making a difference, so she moved on to work with Indigenous tribes living on reservations. She helped them create businesses and pursue other economic endeavors to improve their lives.

Bold blue visions open the book, representing vigilance, perseverance, and justice, all underlying themes in the text. The illustrations in the book were created on a digital platform by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, an award-winning Ojibwe Woodland artist. The Ojibwe are known for their artistic culture; their works of art are a way to honor their history and ancestors as well as to express themselves. This care is evident in his illustrations showing the history and culture of Sharice Davids.

At the end of the book there are letters from the author and the artist, and some information about the Ho-Chunk tribe. The thoughtful letter from Davids is empowering, uplifting and heartwarming. She tells her readers that “the most important thing is to be true to your own journey” (p. 32) and that our choices have power. Her choices led her to where she is today. There is also a picture of her with her biggest supporter, her mom, when she was little.

In the artist’s note in the back, the illustrator speaks of finding himself through an illustration style that best honored his ancestors. He notes that both he and Sharice Davids come from many generations of being silenced and made to conform to a culture other than their own. The result of this silencing is the driving force behind Sharice Davids and her desire to represent her people.

This picturebook can be paired with other books with a theme of perseverance in the face of cultural challenges. In the fictional Rosie Revere, Engineer (Andrea Beaty & David Roberts, 2013), Rosie excels at inventing. Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah (Laurie Ann Thompson & Sean Qualls, 2015) relates how Emmanuel, who was born with a severely deformed leg, learned to ride a bike and in 2001 rode across Ghana to build awareness of disabilities. Finally, in Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 (Michelle Markel & Melissa Sweet, 2013), Ukrainian immigrant Clara Lemlich tackles the unfair policies of the garment industry in the early 20th century.

When Sharice Davids is not in Washington, she lives in Roeland Park, Kansas, and travels all over the state to listen to her constituents. More information can be found on her Congressional website.

Mangeshig is from Ontario, but currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Several of his books are bilingual and give readers a window into First Nations culture such as the harvest of grain in Mnoomin Maan’gowing/The Gift of Mnoomin (Brittany Luby, 2023). He received the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award for Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh/This is How I Know (Brittany Luby, 2021) which was shortlisted for The Indigenous Voices Award for works in an Indigenous language and the Governor General’s Literary Award. More information can be found on his website.

Amy Laird, Texas Woman’s University

Authors retain copyright over the vignettes published in this journal and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the following Creative Commons License: