In Her Hands

Review
By Corinne Henning-Sachs, Walker Memorial Library

This is a great picture-book biography of a lesser-known (at least to me) African-American sculptor. The daughter of a stiff-necked preacher and a supportive mother, Augusta overcame her father’s scorn and the prejudice of the time to attend Cooper Union in Manhattan to study art. The story ends as Augusta is accepted a Cooper Union, and gleefully plays a game of hopscotch. The author notes tell of her subsequent success, but also explain that frustration and depression drove Augusta to destroy many of her sculptures, and she spent the last 17 years of her life in seclusion. Sobering.