Like the heroine in her newly-released children’s book, “Mystery Driver: The Story of Alice Johnson and the First Soap Box Derby,” Stanfordville resident Elizabeth Tracy doesn’t take no for an answer.
Tracy’s decade-long effort to get her narrative nonfiction work published came to fruition on June 26, with a launch at New York City’s Books of Wonder, where copies quickly sold out. That was followed by a standing room only reading at Rhinebeck’s Oblong Books — a familiar venue to the 20-year Stanfordville resident, whose parents lived in Pine Plains. Then the Junior Library Guild, which curates a roster of new, award-worthy children’s literature, added “Mystery Driver” to its exclusive list.
Produced by Candlewick/MIT Kids Press and illustrated by Anna Aronson, the book tells the true story of the only girl among 361 racers in the first derby held in Dayton, Ohio, in 1933. “Alice was the mystery driver because her identity was not discovered until she came up to accept her third-place award,” said Tracy, “Alice removed her helmet and released all her curls.”
The idea for the book came from a radio program: “I was listening to NPR with my husband [J.R., a Herald reporter and member of its board]. One morning — more than 10 years ago — a Soap Box Derby representative was interviewed about the race’s history, and Alice’s story was mentioned. I was intrigued.”
Tracy immediately set to work researching the story. “Surprisingly, there was very little information on the subject,” she said. “The Soap Box Derby website didn’t even mention any female competitors until 1971.” Digging deeper, Tracy unearthed 90-year-old race information from the Dayton Daily News archives; she contacted Ohio’s Montgomery County Genealogical Society and learned Johnson’s birth and death dates.
“I wanted to find her family, but it was slow going,” she said. Tracy, who lives part-time in New York City, went to her neighborhood library for help. “With the staff’s assistance, I made a breakthrough,” she said. “They introduced me to ancestry.com , and I was able to track down Alice’s daughter. She sent me a lot of great information from her family archives.” Tracy got Johnson’s personal account of the race, pictures and memorabilia — even her mother’s notes from that time. “Luckily, they’re a family that writes stuff down,” she said.
(J.R. Tracy/The New Pine Plains Herald)
With no experience as a children’s author — a graduate of MIT with a Ph.D. from the London Business School, Tracy has worked in management consulting and academia — she joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and Gotham Writers to attend workshops and virtual seminars on kids’ fiction. “I soon gravitated toward nonfiction: I’m a math and science kind of girl,” she said.
Tracy completed the first draft of “Mystery Driver” within a few months and submitted it to a number of literary agents and editors. “I found out that it’s really, really, really hard to get a children’s story published,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to get some feedback, because nowadays you’re lucky to get any response — even a rejection letter.”
Tracy’s manuscript went through multiple edits. “I got a few nibbles, but no one would publish my book,” she said. “I finally hired an independent editor who helped me figure out what was missing.” Tracy added physics facts, including friction and gravity’s impact on speed, and details about how to build a soap box derby race car.
She submitted the rewrite to MIT Kids Press in 2021. “Late that year I remember sitting at the kitchen table; it had been months and I hadn’t heard anything,” Tracy recalled. “I was dejectedly opening my laptop to check my correspondence; I had literally just said that I was finally giving up. And there was the MIT Kids email — they had accepted my story about Alice for publication!”
It took another four years of proofreading, copyediting, and working with the illustrator before “Mystery Driver” was released — during which time Tracy was diagnosed with breast cancer. She didn’t skip a beat: “Writing in the peace and quiet of the Stanford Library was a joy and inspiration while I was undergoing treatment. It was a pleasant distraction.”
Award-winning children’s author Colleen Paeff has known Tracy since they met at a nonfiction conference in 2018. “It’s very hard to get a manuscript accepted — it was a four-year process for me,” she said. “The truth is, the only way to get published is to be persistent, and Liz really stuck with it. There’s not a single word in ‘Mystery Driver’ that doesn’t need to be there.”
Tracy hopes the successful book release will lead to more publications with MIT Kids Press, and is already hard at work on her next project: a STEM-oriented picture book (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) about artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, she has sent a copy of her book to the Soap Box Derby organization, and nominated Johnson to its Hall of Fame. “She deserves a place there,” said Tracy. “Alice’s message was universal: You can do anything you set your mind to. I identify with that.”
Tracy will read and sign “Mystery Driver” at the Millbrook Farmers Market at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 5, sponsored by Merritt Bookstore. To learn more, visit her website. To attend a local soap box derby-style race, consider the “Artist’s Soap Box Derby”, scheduled for Sunday, August 17, in Kingston, N.Y