Rena Glickman identified professionally as Rusty Kanokogi was a Jewish lady from Coney Island who grew as much as grow to be a judo grasp at a time when the game was strictly for males. Disguised as a person she entered and received the 1959 YMCA Judo Championship however was compelled to provide again her medal when it was found that she was a lady. By no means wanting that to occur to a different feminine she got down to make girls’s judo a well-liked sport around the globe. Her combat for equality resulted within the first Girls’s Judo World Championship and turning girls’s judo into an Olympic sport.
Since Eve Nadel Catarevas is one in all my critique companions I used to be fortunate sufficient to be an early reader of this undertaking and so thrilled to see her onerous work repay together with her debut ebook. One fearless decided girl writing about one other fearless decided girl! At present Eve and I focus on the true story RENA GLICKMAN QUEEN OF JUDO:
Was there one factor—a selected scene quote or picture from Rena’s Glickman’s life—that guided you all through the writing course of?
It was a quote. Rusty (I’ve all the time used Rena’s nickname) all the time mentioned “In life you are both the hammer or the nail. Be the hammer.” It does not get extra easy than that!
Whereas researching this ebook which reality stunned you?
Rusty was so dedicated to holding the primary Girls’s Judo World Championships (at Madison Sq. Backyard) that she mortgaged her own residence.
Why do you assume children can relate to Rusty?
Ladies as we speak are taught to go after what they need. That wasn’t a basic principle within the Fifties however that is precisely what Rusty did. Obstacles did not deter her. Rusty cast forward.
Which sources have been vital in creating this biography?
There have been no books on Rusty. I used each journal newspaper and on-line article I may discover. Fortunately I discovered Rusty’s daughter. She was invaluable.
How did you choose the timeframe on your ebook?
Rusty’s childhood was so rife with drama (a variety of it did not make it into the ebook – too darkish) I knew I needed to begin there. The fruits of the story was girls’s judo turning into in the end an Olympic sport.
How did you identify if info needs to be included within the story or the again matter?
Ooh that is query Karlin. I can not inform you how usually I put in and take out info in the course of the writing course of. In a single draft it is a part of again matter subsequent draft it is a part of the textual content and at last it is out altogether. However not likely as a result of I am going to have a change of coronary heart and again it goes simply written otherwise. Again matter is the place I put parts which are related to the topic’s life story however do not serve the story. It is the place I home statistics or inroads made past my topic’s lifetime.
For those who may decide the best place for a storywalk for this ebook the place would it not be?
The streets of Coney Island the place Rusty grew up the place that helped her grow to be an impartial strong-willed girl who would cease at nothing to realize her dream – and to encourage others to do the identical.
What’s your #1 tip for writing true tales?
Ferret out as a lot supply materials as you may. Dig dig then dig some extra. You by no means know when you are going to come throughout that stop-you-in-your-tracks quote or anecdote—the one which pulls the entire story collectively.
What different books would you suggest to readers who love Rena Glickman Queen of Judo?
HER FEARLESS RUN: Kathrine Switzer’s Historic Run by Kim Chaffee & Ellen Rooney and BILLIE JEAN!: How Tennis Star Billie Jean King Modified Girls’s Sports activities by Mara Rockliff & Elizabeth Baddeley.
Thanks Eve for being the hammer (wink!) and for taking the time to speak about this kick-butt biography!
TRUE STORY TIDBITS:
Spirited and empowering this ebook (with its “Kapow!” cowl) is on 4 cabinets in my TrueStory Bookshop:
*Girls’s Historical past
*Athletes
*Activists
*Jewish Heritage Tales
On daily basis is an effective day for a real story! However listed here are some particular tie-in dates for RENA GLICKMAN QUEEN OF JUDO.
*February (first Wednesday in February): Nationwide Ladies and Girls in Sports activities Day raises consciousness concerning the optimistic points of sports activities and the continued want to advertise gender equality in each means.
*June 23 (1972): The day Title IX was signed into legislation. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any college or every other training program that receives funding from the federal authorities.
*July 30 (1935): Rena Glickman’s birthday.
*August 21 (2009): YMCA provides Rusty again the medal she was stripped of fifty years earlier.
*September 25 (1988): First Olympic Girls’s Judo competitors (This was an illustration match with no medals. After that Girls’s Judo grew to become a full medal Olympic sport.)
*October 28: World Judo Day celebrates the martial artwork and the birthday of its founder Kanō Jigorō.
Eve Nadel Catarevas can be the creator of WONDERFUL HAIR: The Great thing about Annie Malone illustrated by Felicia Marshall and printed by Creston Books.