Who Is Queen Elizabeth II and Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 I ran out of things to read this week, and I was kind of tired of romances and middle grade fiction so I decided to do some simple biographies in the Who Was series.  The first I read was about the current Queen Elizabeth 11.  It was a wierd coincidence that this month is the 60's anniversary of her assention to the throne.  Megan Stine who wrote the biography seemed to struggle to find ways that Queen Elizabeth has impacted the world, other than she has held on to British royal tradition, and had lots of struggles with her children and grandchildren.  I kind of think this is a little ungenerous.  I think she has done much more to be a positive influence in the world, but that the biographer didn't really dig deep enough into history to understand her contribution. (2021 102 p)

The second biography is about a woman who became the youngest woman ever elected to the US house of representatives.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (often called AOC) is a hispanic American who grew up in New York City.  She studied to become a doctor, but changed her major to international relations after serving an internship in Africa and seeing the poverty there.  After graduation she worked on Bernie Sander's and Ted Kennedy's campaigns.  She was approached by a committee trying to get more Latinos into politics and they asked if she would run for congress. The incumbent was a white man who had been in office for many years, but didn't even live in the predominantly hispanic district.  AOC leveraged social media and beat the incumbent in the primary in 2018.  She was reelicted in 2020.  The author, Kristen Anderson, had no trouble finding lots of impressive things to say about AOC.  Both biographies are engaging, child appropriate introductions to two impressive women.  (2021, 56 p)