January 14, 2025 by Workman Kids
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Not content to list just one person, event, or term per alphabet letter, Rio Cortez (The ABCs of Black History) takes a deep dive into women's history and fourth wave feminism in this rhyming picture book. Appropriately, under BOOKS we see several different authors, including Joan Didion, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Maya Angelou, and continue all the way through to Zora Neal Huston's zeal. Some of the concepts are more abstract, like "knowledge" and "dreaming", but other letters get more concrete examples, like the very necessary addition of Ms. Magazine. A wide range of historical figures and movements is covered.
At the end of the book, there is a very complete listing of all of the topics covered arranged under each letter, so the people are given dates and a brief of their activities and influences. Movements, events, and terms relating to women's history are also explained. This makes the book much more useful for research, since the entries give young readers enough details to use to locate more complete discussions of the topics.
The entries are all very poetic, usually employing meter and an almost Emily Dickinso partial rhyme scheme. I can see this being a popular read aloud choice for Women's History Month. The illustrations are striking and modern, as well as very colorful. The people portrayed are very diverse, with different ethnicities, body types, and identifications. There is definitely a very modern, updated sensibility in the approach to feminism.
Collective biographies are always a great way to introduce readers to a variety of people of whom they may never have heard. Have The ABCs of Women's History available all year long, but especially in March, for readers who enjoyed Colors of Awesome!: 24 Bold Women Who Inspired the World Chen and Desierto, Stand Up!: 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change by Cooper and Johnson, 101 Awesome Women Who Changed Our World by Adams and Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World by Hood, Blackall, and Martin.
Not content to list just one person, event, or term per alphabet letter, Rio Cortez (The ABCs of Black History) takes a deep dive into women's history and fourth wave feminism in this rhyming picture book. Appropriately, under BOOKS we see several different authors, including Joan Didion, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Maya Angelou, and continue all the way through to Zora Neal Huston's zeal. Some of the concepts are more abstract, like "knowledge" and "dreaming", but other letters get more concrete examples, like the very necessary addition of Ms. Magazine. A wide range of historical figures and movements is covered.
At the end of the book, there is a very complete listing of all of the topics covered arranged under each letter, so the people are given dates and a brief of their activities and influences. Movements, events, and terms relating to women's history are also explained. This makes the book much more useful for research, since the entries give young readers enough details to use to locate more complete discussions of the topics.
The entries are all very poetic, usually employing meter and an almost Emily Dickinso partial rhyme scheme. I can see this being a popular read aloud choice for Women's History Month. The illustrations are striking and modern, as well as very colorful. The people portrayed are very diverse, with different ethnicities, body types, and identifications. There is definitely a very modern, updated sensibility in the approach to feminism.
Collective biographies are always a great way to introduce readers to a variety of people of whom they may never have heard. Have The ABCs of Women's History available all year long, but especially in March, for readers who enjoyed Colors of Awesome!: 24 Bold Women Who Inspired the World Chen and Desierto, Stand Up!: 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change by Cooper and Johnson, 101 Awesome Women Who Changed Our World by Adams and Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World by Hood, Blackall, and Martin.
February 11, 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central
"If you can see it, you can be it." When I was growing up in the 1970s, I certainly was not aware that there were any women astronauts, and this book really lays out the historical reasons why I didn't see any of these pioneering women during my formative years. Even though I was allowed to stay up late in July of 1969 to see men walk on the moon, the journey of these six women (Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Rhea Saddon, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Anna Fisher) is really even more impressive than that first spectacular mission.
I liked how we get to see a lot of each women's growing up years; this is especially good for young readers who haven't experienced the difficulties that women had going into certain fields in the 1960s. That all of them were able to pursue science fields, thinking they would be good preparation for getting NASA programs, is remarkable in itself. I was especially interested to read about Saddon, Lucid, and Fisher, since I hadn't really heard of them. The fact that Saddon and Fisher were pregnant while pursuing careers in space was fascinating; my mother almost had to stop teaching when she was pregnant, so the pressure to keep this fact hidden must have been immense.
After learning about the women's early years, we get a good look at how their experience with NASA was. Having to compete against each other for key roles, such as being the US woman to go into space, must have been very difficult. The book does a great job at laying out relationships without the space program, challenges that were faced, and personal difficulties that played into each woman's career.
Perhaps my favorite scene in the book is the portrayal of Nichelle Nichols, of Star Trek fame, filming a recruitment ad for NASA aimed especially at women and people of color. Had I seen THAT when I was preparing for college, I might have been much more interested in space.
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