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ADVENTUROUS WOMEN by Penny Coleman

ADVENTUROUS WOMEN

Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference

by Penny Coleman

Pub Date: March 1st, 2006
ISBN: 0-8050-7744-8
Publisher: Henry Holt

This lively chronicle includes an arctic explorer, a medical supersleuth, a passionate educator, an intrepid reporter and an enslaved woman who walked from Mississippi to freedom in California. These and other women, who took risks, met challenges and lived lives that can inspire us even now, are the focus of Coleman’s essays. The pieces are not biographies, but focus on the adventures themselves and the tests of character they represent. Good use is made of first-person accounts, eyewitness reports and letters, contributing to the conversational tone of the volume. The zeal for letting the women speak for themselves sometimes leads to too much quoting that interrupts the storytelling, but it does keep the narratives from ever getting dry. Extensive backmatter includes scrupulous source notes, a bibliography and a “webliography.” Readers will enjoy being in the presence of eight amazing women who demonstrated “the many ways there are to live a passionate and productive and adventurous life.” (author’s note, chronologies, places to visit, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)