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From Publisher's Weekly

May 6, 2019
Sarah E. Goode, who was among the first African-American women to receive a patent, began her life as an enslaved person: "Before the Civil War, Sarah obeyed her owner. Hurry up. Eyes down. Don't speak." Following the Emancipation Proclamation, Goode moves to Chicago, where she marries a stair builder, has children, and opens a furniture store. Necessity is the mother of invention: when families approach her seeking furniture for small spaces, Goode conceives "a new kind of bed that folded up when it wasn't being used," Kirkfield writes. After designing and building a successful prototype-a bed that folds into a cabinet-Goode faces another hurdle: seeking a patent approval as a woman of color, a feat she achieves. Ewald illustrates the story's people and objects elegantly using shadow and light. Kirkfield's back matter offers a timeline and additional biographical information on this tenacious, innovative inventor. Ages 8â€"9.

From AudioFile Magazine

Narrator Lisa Rene Pitts beautifully conveys this touching story about Sarah E. Good, who invented the cabinet bed in 1885. After moving to Chicago from the South, Good, who was African-American, realized her dreams of marriage, a family, and a job. Listeners will visit the family's furniture store and hear customers tell Good they want beds that take up little space--and the result is her cabinet bed. In addition to Pitts's warm delivery and the production's music, sound effects underscore Good's measuring, cutting, and sanding of her invention while the store's bell tinkles and customers' horses whinny. Eventually, her bed is approved for a patent, which Pitts explains. Learning that Good's business mysteriously closed after two years makes this a bittersweet listening experience. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine