Fearless Mary
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
This book provides a fascinating and inspiring account of the achievements of Mary Fields. Mary Fields is one of the unsung, trailblazing African American women who helped settle the American West. Mary was a former slave who became the first African American woman stagecoach drive…and she was in her 60s when she earned this distinction. Being a mail carrier in 1895 was an important, but dangerous job. No one took Mary seriously when she showed up to compete for the job (all the others were male cowboys). The applicants were given a test to see who could hitch a team of six horse the faster, and Mary won!
Fearless Mary is an inspirational book about strength, determination, and one woman who was determined to achieve her goals and wouldn't take no for an answer. This book gives a glimpse into what it was like to be a stage coach driver and the daily challenges Mary would have faced doing her job. Mail carriers not only had to fight the terrain, weather, and wild animals, but they had to defend themselves and their cargo against the dangerous outlaws how often tried to steal the supplies, food, and money carried by the stagecoaches. Despite these challenges, Mary traveled across the land with her pet eagle for many years and never lost a package!
suggested teaching point
On page 3, lead a discussion with your students about how a character’s traits can help the reader to make inferences.
Stagecoach drivers needed to be smart, tough, and unshakable. The text says, “As a former slave who traveled to the West alone to seek opportunity, Mary Fields is all of those things.” Make an inference. How did Mary’s journey from being a slave to traveling west to seek opportunity help her develop those character traits?
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