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AMAZONS, ABOLITIONISTS, AND ACTIVISTS by Mikki Kendall Kirkus Star

AMAZONS, ABOLITIONISTS, AND ACTIVISTS

A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights

by Mikki Kendall ; illustrated by A. D'Amico

Pub Date: Nov. 5th, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-58179-3
Publisher: Ten Speed Press

This graphic narrative traces the history of women’s rights around the globe.

When their purple-skinned, white-haired AI instructor introduces the subject of women’s rights, the class of six young women breaks out in argument. The instructor responds by transporting them across time and space to show them the history of women’s rights. Starting with ancient Sumer, the instructor exposes her class, and consequently, readers, to influential women from diverse backgrounds by highlighting the struggles and achievements of nearly 200 individuals who were leaders in a variety of areas of pursuit, including well-known figures such as Pharaoh Hatshepsut and Harriet Tubman as well as others who deserve to be better known. The content is both historical and up to the minute, with relevance to current issues, covering, among other topics, colonization, suffrage, civil rights, redress movements, the wage gap, sexual harassment, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights. Kendall’s (contributor: Here We Are, 2017, etc.) informative text and D’Amico’s realistic full-color illustrations also include brief biographies of contemporary women, including Naelyn Pike, an environmental and Indigenous rights activist, and Alice Wong, who advocates for disability rights. The unnamed students represent a diverse range of identities and manners of gender expression: Five of the six are people of color, one has a prosthetic limb, and another is hijabi. Source notes and suggestions for further reading would have been valuable additions.

A fabulous introduction—informative, forthright, and highly appealing.

(index) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-16)