Books, Learning, Reviews

She Spoke: Children’s Book Review

March is National Women’s History Month. It also is National Women Inventors Month and Gender Equality Month. International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8th. This year’s theme is #BalanceforBetter.

Many of my favorite childhood reads (or maybe most) are books by women writers, including – Little Women, Black Beauty, What Katy Did, many Blyton books, and so many more.

So when I decided to start looking for books to feature here, it was both easy and hard. Easy because I have many, many, many books – both from earlier and today – that I read and loved. Hard because I have many, many, many books and I have to pick a few first 🙂

Anyway, for the next few days (except on those days when I miss:-)), I will feature books that will make perfect reads for this month and beyond.

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She Spoke:

she spoke

She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World
Kathy MacMillan, Manuela Bernardi, Kathrin Honesta (Illustrated by)
Familius (Familius LLC)
March 1, 2019
Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Women


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Description:

When the world tells you to stay quiet, do you listen, or do you speak up? In She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World, with the touch of a button readers can hear Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune, Dolores Huerta, Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. Jane Goodall, Shirley Chisholm, Susan Shown Harjo, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Leymah Gbowee, Dr. Temple Grandin, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Tammy Duckworth, Dr. Joanne Liu, Abby Wambach, and Malala Yousafzai.

Through succinct profiles, stunning portraits by illustrator Kathrin Honesta, and the original voices of these women, She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World will inspire readers of all ages to share their own truths and change the world.

My Thoughts:

Pros:

  • This book introduces us to women who are famous, like Hillary Clinton, Dr.Jane Goodall, and Maya Angelou, it also brings to light other lesser-famous women who deserve the spotlight as well, like Dolores Huerta, Leymah Gbowee, and Dr. Temple Grandin.
  • I loved the inclusion of a diverse set of women (in spite of the focus being the US); the women included are from different races and cultures, and include differently-abled women as well.
  • Love that the physical book includes snippets of speeches by the featured women.
  • It is just wordy enough so it can be understood by the intended younger audience, and help increase their vocabulary in the process.
  • The illustrations! They are bright, colorful, and perfect for the younger audiences.
  • The book includes further reading references for the featured women, and a list of more women to learn about (again US heavy). The authors do note in the afterword that narrowing it down to fourteen women was the hardest thing to do.

Cons:

  • While this is labeled as ‘women around the world’ it is US-heavy (10/14).
  • It could have been just a bit longer.

Additional thought (based on the cons above): it could have easily included a few more women from around the world (in addition or instead of), making it more realistically ‘world’, and longer (if in addition) in the process!

In Summary:

With the caveat of my additional thought above, I enjoyed reading about the women featured in the book – words and illustrations. A book that will be a good and inspiring addition to home and school libraries, especially in the US.

Rating: 3.5/5
Reading Level: 7 – 10
Reread Level: 4/5

Disclaimer: Thanks to Edelweiss and the publishers for the eARC of this book. The opinions expressed are my honest thoughts as I read the book.

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Women's History Month - Books to read for this month and beyond : She Spoke

42 thoughts on “She Spoke: Children’s Book Review

  1. This is a book that I need to find. We need more books like this that show what us women have done for HERstory. I agree there should be more international.

  2. Despite being US heavy, it sounds like a great read, and a book I think I will pick up for my girls as gifts. They are both at university and strong women’s advocates. Great pick as for International Women’s Day (the day I am commenting).

  3. Great review, I absolutely love the beautiful cover on this book plus it looks and sounds like an amazingly great book. I am really glad you fully enjoyed reading this book, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.

  4. These books look great! I don’t have any kids, but I’ll definitely recommend them to my friends with daughters!

  5. In this month of appreciating women, I’ve been reading on great books about great women so I wouldn’t mind getting ‘She Spoke’ too!

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