No Steps Behind



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    🕮    "No Steps Behind [by Jeff Gottesfeld and illustrated by Shiella Witanto] is the unlikely story of Beate Sirota Gordon, just a girl when her Russian-Austrian-Jewish family found refuge in 1930s Japan. Beate became fluent in Japanese, loved the nation’s culture and people, but hated its treatment of women and proverbs like “Women walk three steps behind.” After World War II, putting her language and cultural skills to use, she returned to Japan and fought for equal rights for women to be enshrined in the post-war Japanese post-war constitution. Though she won that battle, and remains a Japanese national hero, she is little known outside that country." -- Creston Books 

I spoke with author Jeff Gottesfeld about Beate Sirota Gordon, and about the adventure of writing this picture book biography in order to bring her story to an English-speaking audience.

Jeff Gottesfeld and Nicole Gordon (Beate's daugter)
hold a picture of Beate Sirota Gordon

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