A comprehensive guide for young women interested in running for public office.
It’s never too early for girls and women to get involved in politics—and this book was designed to show them exactly how.
When former journalist and debut author MacKendrick asked former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about the biggest challenge she’s ever faced, she was shocked at the accomplished woman’s answer: self-doubt. MacKendrick realized the need for a resource to encourage young women interested in politics. The book begins with a series of profiles including those of Canadian politician Michelle Stilwell, who is quadriplegic; bisexual Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, the only member of Congress who is openly nonreligious; Taiwanese American Boston city councilwoman Michelle Wu; and Jordan’s Palestinian Muslim minister for social development Hala Lattouf. The profiles, which feature women from Malawi, Israel, Afghanistan, and New Zealand, not only chronicle the women’s decisions to run for office, but also the obstacles they faced along the way. The final third of the book provides a comprehensive guide to running for office, with information about goal setting, building a support system, volunteering, networking, building a campaign platform, and finances; there is an extensive list of resources. MacKendrick’s text is blunt and practical without ever feeling unkind; her matter-of-fact tone is motivating while insisting on self-reflection. Overall the book is useful and encouraging, making it an ideal read for girls with political ambitions.
A comprehensive guide for young women interested in running for public office. (Nonfiction. 13-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0035-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Four teens fall in and out of longing, love and violence: Kyle, the motorcycle-riding musician, Miguel, the unpredictable poet haunted by a violent past, Natalie, a mischief-making cutter, and Tricia, a biracial teen uncomfortable in her own skin. Told in minimalist free-verse vignettes, their lives crash, simmer and smolder together in the science lab, on the soccer field, at the coffee house and more. Phillips adeptly spins complex, provocative, sharp-imaged lines of poetry in this first novel that is mostly told by the four main characters with some well-intended but pandering commentary by the school faculty, including their English teacher, who assigned them to write many of the poems for class. Though fully realized in structure, tonality and word choice, several poems lack voice, particularly those written by male characters. Readers can identify the speaker because the author has assigned names to stanzas, but any sense that the characters could be living, breathing, talking teenagers stops there. However, although much of the climatic action happens offstage, there are enough razor blades, lust, jealousy and revenge to keep readers breathlessly hooked until the very end. (Verse novel. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55050-411-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Coteau Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
Inspiring but not universal.
To hear the more than 50 contributors tell it, one might think that queer adults mostly end up living in ritzy corners of New York City and becoming published authors.
That, perhaps, is the necessary consequence of this project, which compiles lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer writers' letters to their younger selves. Big names in adult, teen or children's literature have contributed, including Michael Cunningham, Armistead Maupin, Marion Dane Bauer, Arthur Levine, Gregory Maguire and Amy Bloom. A number of comics artists—including Michael DiMotta, Jennifer Camper and Jasika Nicole—have penned letters in comic form. Many authors use their short (usually two- to three-page) letters to talk about the future. Some letters read like a memoir in second person; some describe past addictions, suicide attempts and other grim circumstances; many give advice. Comparisons to the It Gets Better video campaign, in which LGBT adults promise queer and questioning teenagers that life improves after high school, are inevitable. Contributors Jacqueline Woodson and Erik Orrantia even use the language of “getting better” outright. Yet the disproportionate achievement of fame, wealth and successful careers in the arts among the authors here seems an unfair promise to make to most readers.
Inspiring but not universal. (Anthology. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-39932-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
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