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Dance of Resistance: The Josephine Baker Story
Catherine Johnson celebrates the incredible life of Josephine Baker in this true story chronicling her life from poor girl to beloved actress, dancer and wartime heroine.
Dancer, singer, actress, movie star, civil-rights activist – Josephine Baker was a phenomenon!
Overcoming the poverty and abuse of her childhood, Josephine grew up to become one of the biggest stars of the early twentieth century, particularly adored in her adopted country of France. She used her connections to help the Resistance in their fight against the Nazis during the Second World War and later became involved with Martin Luther King and the civil-rights movements in the US.
Controversial and outspoken, she is an iconic historical figure and Catherine Johnson brings her story vividly to life for a young audience in this enthralling piece of narrative non-fiction.
Dancer, singer, actress, movie star, civil-rights activist – Josephine Baker was a phenomenon!
Overcoming the poverty and abuse of her childhood, Josephine grew up to become one of the biggest stars of the early twentieth century, particularly adored in her adopted country of France. She used her connections to help the Resistance in their fight against the Nazis during the Second World War and later became involved with Martin Luther King and the civil-rights movements in the US.
Controversial and outspoken, she is an iconic historical figure and Catherine Johnson brings her story vividly to life for a young audience in this enthralling piece of narrative non-fiction.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
126 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2025
About the author
Catherine Johnson
212 books63 followersCatherine Johnson is a British author and screenwriter known for her young adult fiction and work in film, television and radio. Born in London to a Jamaican father and Welsh mother, she studied film at St Martin's School of Art before publishing her debut novel, The Last Welsh Summer (1993). She has since written around 20 novels, including works on Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, and won the 2019 Little Rebels Award for Freedom. Her historical novel Sawbones (2013) earned multiple shortlistings and the Young Quills Award. Johnson co-wrote the screenplay for Bullet Boy (2004) with Saul Dibb, and has served as Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Writer in Residence at Holloway Prison, and judge for the Jhalak Prize. In 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 12, 2025
What a great read this turned out to be, I couldn’t believe how much she crammed into her life.
There was so much drama, so much bravery and emotion in this short book. After I had read this book I googled her as I wanted to learn more about her. Barrington Stokes should do more books like this.
There was so much drama, so much bravery and emotion in this short book. After I had read this book I googled her as I wanted to learn more about her. Barrington Stokes should do more books like this.
September 22, 2025
Catherine Johnson excels at writing these stories which are biographical and explain the life of the subject. The subject of this story, Josephine Baker, is someone whose name I knew but I knew little else about her.
Blimey she was a special kind of person!
She was born in East St Louis on 3rd June 1906. She grew up in a very poor family in segregated America. Her and her brother, Richard, used to steal coal from the train tracks to help, baby sister Margaret and Willie Mae were too young at this stage. She loved to go to the theatre, she loved the dancing girls.
One day she was taken to a big house, where the lady of the house and the cook expected her to work hard but treated her appallingly. After one episode with some boiling water she left.
At the theatre she saw the Jones Family Band - she really loved them and wanted to go with them. But again she had to work - but the man didn't just want a cook and cleaner. She ran away, but when she finally went home to her Mama she was beaten!
She took a job as a waitress - then got married at 13! She spent a lot of time at the theatre. Finally she became a helper to Clara Smith at the theatre, then as a chorus girl too. The group went on a tour of America theatres - ones for black people.
Having divorced she married again, to Billy at 15. He was nicer, his family owned a restaurant. But it still wasn't what she wanted. But Billy had known she would leave when she got a special job, this one was in New York.
She made a name for herself, she was offered a contract to go to Paris. To a black woman Paris was unbelievable, she was accepted everywhere! As she became a star she was given presents - even a monkey! She toured Europe.
As a star in Europe she decided to return to America, but things hadn't changed so much segregation continued - she was refused entry to hotels. On visiting her family she found that the house and money she sent were gone. She returned to France. But Hitler's Germany was more powerful, when they began their invasion of Belgium, many refugees arrived. Josephine took them in happily. Then she became part of the Resistance.
This Resistance work became very important.
Josephine, the girl from poorest East St Louis, became a star and a Resistance spy. Determination is so important when changing your life.
Thanks to Poppy at Barrington Stoke for this copy, the book is out now.
Blimey she was a special kind of person!
She was born in East St Louis on 3rd June 1906. She grew up in a very poor family in segregated America. Her and her brother, Richard, used to steal coal from the train tracks to help, baby sister Margaret and Willie Mae were too young at this stage. She loved to go to the theatre, she loved the dancing girls.
One day she was taken to a big house, where the lady of the house and the cook expected her to work hard but treated her appallingly. After one episode with some boiling water she left.
At the theatre she saw the Jones Family Band - she really loved them and wanted to go with them. But again she had to work - but the man didn't just want a cook and cleaner. She ran away, but when she finally went home to her Mama she was beaten!
She took a job as a waitress - then got married at 13! She spent a lot of time at the theatre. Finally she became a helper to Clara Smith at the theatre, then as a chorus girl too. The group went on a tour of America theatres - ones for black people.
Having divorced she married again, to Billy at 15. He was nicer, his family owned a restaurant. But it still wasn't what she wanted. But Billy had known she would leave when she got a special job, this one was in New York.
She made a name for herself, she was offered a contract to go to Paris. To a black woman Paris was unbelievable, she was accepted everywhere! As she became a star she was given presents - even a monkey! She toured Europe.
As a star in Europe she decided to return to America, but things hadn't changed so much segregation continued - she was refused entry to hotels. On visiting her family she found that the house and money she sent were gone. She returned to France. But Hitler's Germany was more powerful, when they began their invasion of Belgium, many refugees arrived. Josephine took them in happily. Then she became part of the Resistance.
This Resistance work became very important.
Josephine, the girl from poorest East St Louis, became a star and a Resistance spy. Determination is so important when changing your life.
Thanks to Poppy at Barrington Stoke for this copy, the book is out now.
August 8, 2025
Thank you so much to Barrington Stoke and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.
This was amazing, I knew about Josephine Baker, but I didn’t know much so reading this was wonderful. She lived such an incredibly full life and I really liked that this book shared everything about it. I liked the way it was written as though she was sharing her life with the audience her self, it was honestly such an amazing touch to this book.
Her determination to be a star did such great things for her, she unbelievably managed to achieve every dream she could ever think of, though it was a difficult, and a difficult world, a world where black people were still treated like dirt, she didn’t let it stop her from her dreams, no matter what changes she had to make to make them come true.
Growing up in such a bad way made her an incredibly strong woman, she was brave and seemed almost fearless. There were so many things within the book that shocked me, things I never imagined she’d have been part of or had to go through. She was so resilient though, as these things happened but she managed to over come them and move past them to go for her dreams no matter what.
This was such a wonderfully made memoir of the Great Josephine Baker, I honestly loved learning so much about her, not just how incredible she was on the stage and how much being a performer and star made her; but also her childhood struggles, her war time work, how she fought for rights, how she lived the end of her life.
This whole book was all so full of information and I absolutely loved reading this book about her. One note I will say is I wish there had of been a photograph of her at the back of the book for readers who might not have been familiar with her yet and would have loved to get a glimpse at who they were reading about.
This was amazing, I knew about Josephine Baker, but I didn’t know much so reading this was wonderful. She lived such an incredibly full life and I really liked that this book shared everything about it. I liked the way it was written as though she was sharing her life with the audience her self, it was honestly such an amazing touch to this book.
Her determination to be a star did such great things for her, she unbelievably managed to achieve every dream she could ever think of, though it was a difficult, and a difficult world, a world where black people were still treated like dirt, she didn’t let it stop her from her dreams, no matter what changes she had to make to make them come true.
Growing up in such a bad way made her an incredibly strong woman, she was brave and seemed almost fearless. There were so many things within the book that shocked me, things I never imagined she’d have been part of or had to go through. She was so resilient though, as these things happened but she managed to over come them and move past them to go for her dreams no matter what.
This was such a wonderfully made memoir of the Great Josephine Baker, I honestly loved learning so much about her, not just how incredible she was on the stage and how much being a performer and star made her; but also her childhood struggles, her war time work, how she fought for rights, how she lived the end of her life.
This whole book was all so full of information and I absolutely loved reading this book about her. One note I will say is I wish there had of been a photograph of her at the back of the book for readers who might not have been familiar with her yet and would have loved to get a glimpse at who they were reading about.
September 23, 2025
A very interesting read that conveys the life and times of Josephine Baker – someone just as famous for dancing in a skirt made of bananas as for being a supporter of Jews, and the French Resistance, in the Second World War. This covers a lot of topics that could be thought of as touchy for a primary school audience – the fact she was bisexual and went through husbands and lovers like a hot knife through butter; the fact she was forever suffering from American racism, with the Jim Crow laws just the start of it. But it deals with everything with a light touch, leaving us to be gently introduced to her campaigning work, and long before that the ordeals of poverty she and her family were living with in St Louis.
What it doesn't really do is clearly get across quite what she did in the War – she seems to have managed to ferry a good few people out of France to neutral territory, but as for the Resistance work, it's a touch vague. I would have preferred the balance to have been more towards that than the rise-and-fall-and-rise again of her growth as a star. That said, this is fictionalised into her voice, so it's probably concentrating on what she herself would have most commonly and most happily talked about, which was her showmanship and somewhat bludgeoning success. Even with that focus this is a healthy four stars, and a sign that Barrington Stoke can do life stories just as well as they can routine fictional narratives.
What it doesn't really do is clearly get across quite what she did in the War – she seems to have managed to ferry a good few people out of France to neutral territory, but as for the Resistance work, it's a touch vague. I would have preferred the balance to have been more towards that than the rise-and-fall-and-rise again of her growth as a star. That said, this is fictionalised into her voice, so it's probably concentrating on what she herself would have most commonly and most happily talked about, which was her showmanship and somewhat bludgeoning success. Even with that focus this is a healthy four stars, and a sign that Barrington Stoke can do life stories just as well as they can routine fictional narratives.
August 16, 2025
Catherine Johnson has created an engaging and wonderfully entertaining biographical narrative. This is a book that will appeal to lovers of both fact and fiction. Johnson draws on her exceptional storytelling skills to take the darker moments of Josephine Baker’s life and present them in a way that children aged 9+ can both understand and feel comfortable reading. Throughout, I could hear Baker’s voice and feel her passion. To sustain a first-person narrative that spans an entire life, while never losing its youthful perspective and energy, is a remarkable achievement – one that Catherine Johnson handles masterfully. I’m very much looking forward to reading more of her work.
Published by Barrington Stoke, this is also an ideal choice for dyslexic children or struggling readers.
As someone who knew little about Josephine Baker beforehand, I found this book fascinating. It is perfectly pitched, highly readable, and would make a fantastic read-aloud. It deserves a place in every school library and classroom from Year 4 upwards – and it certainly wouldn’t be out of place in a secondary library.
Published by Barrington Stoke, this is also an ideal choice for dyslexic children or struggling readers.
As someone who knew little about Josephine Baker beforehand, I found this book fascinating. It is perfectly pitched, highly readable, and would make a fantastic read-aloud. It deserves a place in every school library and classroom from Year 4 upwards – and it certainly wouldn’t be out of place in a secondary library.
August 7, 2025
I read this short middle-grade novel in one night! Dance of Resistance packs a remarkable amount of information about Josephine Baker into just over 100 pages. It sparked my curiosity about her life and accomplishments, and I’m excited to learn even more. The writing is well-suited for the intended audience, and I’d definitely recommend this one to anyone who reads or curates middle-grade collections.
(PUB DATE: 9/11/2025)
(I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed above are my own.)
(PUB DATE: 9/11/2025)
(I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed above are my own.)
August 19, 2025
I received a copy of this eBook from netGalley for a honest review.
Wow! This book is full of so much information told through the eyes of Josephine Baker. What a great way for children and adults to learn more about this amazing performer and activist. I learned a lot and was move by Josephine's life and accomplishments.
Wow! This book is full of so much information told through the eyes of Josephine Baker. What a great way for children and adults to learn more about this amazing performer and activist. I learned a lot and was move by Josephine's life and accomplishments.
February 25, 2026
What a fabulous book and what an incredible life story!
I’d heard of Josephine Baker but had no idea about the details of her life.
The author does a wonderful job of bringing her voice to life with vivid imagery about the shows and her life in Paris. All the WWII facts were really amazing. What a brave and fascinating woman.
Highly recommended.
I’d heard of Josephine Baker but had no idea about the details of her life.
The author does a wonderful job of bringing her voice to life with vivid imagery about the shows and her life in Paris. All the WWII facts were really amazing. What a brave and fascinating woman.
Highly recommended.
August 4, 2025
Read for work. I thought it was well written and will be enjoyable for the audience it is aimed at.
September 22, 2025
Interesting
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews