Awesome Elijah Book Reading

Local author, illustrator, and art teacher, Martha Raleigh Winsten, is hosting a reading of her book Awesome Elijah along with an illustration demonstration at Greenwich Library on July 13, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Ballston Spa Library on July 29, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Awesome Elijah is a true story about Jackie Pierce, a teacher’s aide at Division Street who along with her daughter, Andrea, adopted a three-day-old calf who was set to be sold to slaughter. The story follows Elijah growing up alongside various farm animals and eventually becoming the only steer to ride at the Horse Expo at Saratoga Race Course.

The book was originally published in 2007, but through a grant provided by Saratoga Arts, Awesome Elijah was republished as a hardcover. Also included in the book is a QR code for three songs recorded by Winsten that go along with the story. 

Winsten comes from a storied family in the illustration landscape; her grandfather was Henry Raleigh, who is in the Illustrators Hall of Fame. He was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s favorite illustrator, and one of his WWI war posters can be seen at the Saratoga Military Museum on Lake Ave.

Her mother and father, Sheila Raleigh and movie critic, Archer Winsten, were part of the Harlem Renaissance. They would go with John Hammond to listen to singers Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald and others at the Savoy in Harlem.