Meet the “Angel on Snowshoes”
Snowshoe Kate and the Hospital Built for Pennies
Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb was a doctor in rural northern Wisconsin during the early 1900s, a time when very few women practiced medicine. Because the nearest hospital was over two hours away and the snowy roads were often impassable, Dr. Kate frequently traveled by snowmobile, sometimes the snowplow, and even snowshoes in order to reach her patients, which lead to her nickname, the "Angel on Snowshoes."
In her years as a doctor, she delivered an astonishing 4,000 babies, and those same children later organized a penny drive, a massive grassroots fundraiser to build a hospital for Dr. Kate and their community. Success was realized in 1954 when Lakeland Memorial Hospital opened — with Dr. Kate serving as chief of staff.
Published by ABRAMS Kids. Illustrated by Jaime Zollars, www.jaimezollars.com.
Reviews for Snowshoe Kate and the Hospital Built for Pennies
“An engaging narrative showcasing an exceptional woman, a time, and a place not often featured in picturebook biographies.”
“Preus and Zollars excel at anchoring both human and numerical stories, conveying via first-person prose and crisp, digitally colored graphite images the expansive impact of both one doctor and all those pennies.”
“Memorable pictures of what a worthy life, and a million pennies, might look like.
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“More than anything this book is a reminder of what we can do . . . together.”
