She Did It!

October 1, 2018
In a dense and historically detailed volume, Caldecott Medalist McCully profiles 21 women of influence, from investigative journalist Ida Minerva Tarbell to scientist Temple Grandin. McCully casts a wide net, featuring familiar fighters for women’s suffrage alongside lesser-known figures, including Barbara Gittings, the “mother of the gay rights movement,” and astronomer Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter. McCully describes each individual’s upbringing, early influences, and legacy, and significant blocks of text place each woman’s contributions within historical context: “The American public was ready to listen to Carson’s warnings about the dangers of pesticide. They had seen other examples of substances that had harmed humans,” she writes about Rachel Carson. Portraits of each subject, rendered in washes and finely detailed lines, resemble affectionate caricatures. A rich and multilayered celebration of women’s innovation and perseverance. Ages 8–12.

October 15, 2018
Caldecott Medalist McCully delves into the lives of extraordinary American women.Beginning with the subject of her earlier biography Ida M. Tarbell (2014), McCully uses a chronological (by birth year) structure to organize her diverse array of subjects, each of whom is allotted approximately 10 pages. Lovely design enhances the text with a full-color portrait of each woman and small additional illustrations in the author/illustrator's traditional style, plenty of white space, and spare use of dynamic colors. This survey provides greater depth than most, but even so, some topics go troublingly uncontextualized to the point of reinforcing stereotype: "In slavery, Black women had been punished for trying to improve their appearance. Now that they were free, many cared a great deal about grooming"; "President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to report to internment camps to keep them from providing aid to the enemy Japanese forces." Of the 21 surveyed, one Japanese-American woman (Patsy Mink) is highlighted, as are one Latinx woman (Dolores Huerta), one Mohegan woman (Gladys Tantaquidgeon), three black women (Madam C.J. Walker, Ella Baker, and Shirley Chisholm), four out queer white women (Billie Jean King, Barbara Gittings, Jane Addams, and Isadora Duncan; the latter two's sexualities are not discussed), two Jewish women (Gertrude Berg and Vera Rubin), and three women with known disabilities (Addams, Dorothea Lange, and Temple Grandin).Despite its not insignificant flaws, this book provides insights into the lives of important women, many of whom have otherwise yet to be featured in nonfiction for young readers. (sources) (Collective biography. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.