Inclusive and inspirational.
Brief profiles of young changemakers working toward a better future.
A foreword by young conservationist Bindi Irwin opens the latest entry in this series of inspiring collective biographies of women and girls. This volume, written by 13 authors and with full-color illustrations by 80 artists, focuses on young people following their passions toward innovation and success. A few are widely recognized names, such as Jazz Jennings, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Greta Thunberg. The rest are less well-known young women who are diverse in age, race, ability, sexual identity, country of origin, and field of expertise, from Dewmini, a Sri Lankan teen whose home garden helped her impoverished family, to Judit Giró Benet, a Spanish biomedical engineer in her 20s working on early breast cancer detection. What they all have in common is a belief in their own strength and ability to bring about change. The profiles include a good balance of subjects from the sciences, arts, sports, business, and activism; for example, Bulgarian anti-bullying activist Milena Radoytseva, Māori artist and mental health advocate Te Manaia Jennings, and Canadian wheelchair basketball player Puisand Lai. Each one-page biography is accompanied by a full-page portrait that captures the subject’s energy and determination. Fans of motivational vignettes will enjoy browsing through this title. Those interested in learning more are directed to the app and QR codes linking to longer audio stories.
Inclusive and inspirational. (minibiographies, glossary, prompts, about the authors and illustrators) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-953424-34-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Rebel Girls
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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