{"id":20874,"date":"2013-07-21T10:44:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T14:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=20874"},"modified":"2014-05-08T14:55:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T18:55:58","slug":"as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/","title":{"rendered":"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"As<\/a>In segregated Greenville, North Carolina, 14-year-old Mason Steele has the rare talent to transcribe his father’s impassioned descriptions of civil rights incidents into effective business letters determined to educate and change people’s minds. His father’s civil rights group rewards young Mason’s efforts with a typewriter. With patience and dedication, Mason learns every letter and symbol of the shiny machine.<\/p>\n

That fall, local school segregation ends \u2013 at\u00a0least by law. But when Mason and his brothers begin at Belvoir High, the bus will not stop to pick them up. Even their summer friends warn, “‘You Steele boys are asking for trouble.'”\u00a0Mason proves to be a good student, regardless of the rude principal, the unfriendly teachers who call him ‘boy,’ the unwelcoming students. He is especially adept at typing, so much so that he is grudgingly allowed to represent Belvoir at a county typing competition. Under Mason’s fingers, the keys move as fast as words could fly …<\/p>\n

Pamela M. Tuck<\/a>‘s ending “Author’s Note” reveals her book is “based on the real-life experiences of my father, Moses Teel Jr., during the 1960s.” As her father provided the words for his own father, Tuck does the same for her father, transcribing his memories into this inspiring book, richly enhanced by Eric Velasquez<\/a>‘s evocative, detailed illustrations. Father and daughter’s multi-generational accomplishment is an effective reminder that “ordinary people … played an integral part in moving our country in this direction [toward tolerance and the acceptance of diversity]. Their hard work, determination, and courage set an example for all who face challenges to their rights and freedoms.”<\/p>\n

Although Tuck\u00a0won favorite multi-culti children’s publisher\u00a0Lee & Low’s New Voices Award<\/a>\u00a0in 2007, that her\u00a0Words<\/em>\u00a0hit shelves earlier this year couldn’t be more timely.\u00a0The reactions during this first week following the July 13, 2013\u00a0George Zimmerman verdict in the shooting of Trayvon Martin<\/a>, including President Obama’s highly personal speech on Friday, July 19<\/a> [“Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago”], clearly show our society \u2013\u00a0a half-century after the events in Tuck’s title\u00a0\u2013\u00a0still faces daily challenges to protecting rights and freedoms for all. Books like this remain as necessary as ever to teach our children, teach them early, teach them well. President Obama encourages: ” … we should also have confidence that kids these days, I think, have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did, and that along this long and difficult journey, you know, we’re becoming a more perfect union, not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.” That, indeed, is the audacity of hope<\/a>\u00a0for us all.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Children<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In segregated Greenville, North Carolina, 14-year-old Mason Steele has the rare talent to transcribe his father’s impassioned descriptions of civil rights incidents into effective business letters determined to educate and change people’s minds. His father’s civil rights group rewards young Mason’s efforts with a typewriter….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,142,62,6],"tags":[499,6608,22,500,189,24,501,29,79,44],"class_list":["post-20874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biography","category-black-african-american","category-children-picture-books","category-fiction","tag-as-fast-as-words-could-fly","tag-bookdragon","tag-civil-rights","tag-eric-velasquez","tag-father-son-relationship","tag-historical","tag-pamela-m-tuck","tag-race-racism","tag-school-challenges","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"\nAs Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In segregated Greenville, North Carolina, 14-year-old Mason Steele has the rare talent to transcribe his father’s impassioned descriptions of civil rights incidents into effective business letters determined to educate and change people’s minds. His father’s civil rights group rewards young Mason’s efforts with a typewriter....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-21T14:44:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-08T18:55:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/07\/As-Fast-as-Words-Could-Fly.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"318\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"387\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - BookDragon","og_description":"In segregated Greenville, North Carolina, 14-year-old Mason Steele has the rare talent to transcribe his father’s impassioned descriptions of civil rights incidents into effective business letters determined to educate and change people’s minds. His father’s civil rights group rewards young Mason’s efforts with a typewriter....","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2013-07-21T14:44:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-08T18:55:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":318,"height":387,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/07\/As-Fast-as-Words-Could-Fly.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/","name":"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-21T14:44:02+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-08T18:55:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/as-fast-as-words-could-fly-by-pamela-m-tuck-illustrated-by-eric-velasquez\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26386,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions\/26386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}