She Persisted Around the World

February 19, 2018
Clinton expands the reach of her bestselling picture book She Persisted, highlighting 13 women who have made history internationally. Her subjects include familiar contemporary figures J.K. Rowling and Malala Yousafzai, and others less widely recognizable: astronomer Caroline Herschel; suffragist and activist for indigenous Maori women, Kate Sheppard; and Viola Desmond, who refused to leave the whites-only section of a Canadian movie theater in 1946. Clinton again writes in a measured tone that is at once celebratory and defiant. Boiger's watercolor and ink artwork exudes warmth and subtle power, each spread carefully integrating colors and thematic elements germane to the subjects: Rowling's page features a dusky purple castle and a white owl in flight, while soccer player Sisleide Lima do Amor is surrounded by the colors of the Brazilian flag. Two brown-skinned children and a white child in a wheelchair bookend the story in an opening illustration, which shows them visiting a grand library, and again on a final spread. Clinton puts opportunity and responsibility in readers' hands: "So, speak up, rise up, dream big. These women did that and more. They persisted and so should you." Ages 4â8.

March 15, 2018
A scope-broadening companion to She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World (2017).Arranged in their subjects' birth order (though frequently without any dates), the brief tributes focus on the achievements of selected women from countries other than the U.S. Activists' causes include the right to an education (Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexico, and Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan), environmentalism (Wangari Maathai, Kenya), anti-war protests (Leymah Gbowee, Liberia) and women's suffrage (Kate Sheppard, New Zealand, whose cause included Maori women). Marie Curie gets a nod for her two Nobel prizes, Egyptian Aisha Rateb for her trailblazing legal career, and Joanne "J.K." Rowling for Harry Potter. Brazilian soccer star Sisleide "Sissi" Lima do Amor is the one athlete in the lineup. The roster is, overall, both racially and nationally diverse--though as Chinese-American dancer Yuan Yuan Tan has spent most of her life in this country, East Asia seems underrepresented. Personal detail is so skimpy that, for instance, readers will have to infer from context that Canadian civil rights activist Viola Desmond was a woman of color. Clinton does note that astronomer Caroline Herschel was barely 4 feet tall due to a childhood disease, and following an early accident, pioneering Indian doctor Mary Verghese worked from a wheelchair. Each entry appears with a visionary quote and, from Boiger, fluidly brushed watercolor portraits of the subject as a dignified adult and also, often, a child. There is no backmatter to guide inspired readers to further information."So, speak up, rise up, dream big," Clinton urges--but, again, offers only tantalizing glimpses of women who did that. (Informational picture book. 6-9)

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April 15, 2018
Grades K-2 This companion to She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World (2017) introduces women from other countries, some well-known, others not, who overcame often enormous odds to follow their own paths. The subjects, each fascinating in her own right, include Kate Sheppard, who helped get New Zealand women the vote; Aisha Rateb, an Egyptian who worked to reform the country's legal system; and Yuan Yuan Tan, a Chinese ballet dancer, as well as more famous folk, such as J. K. Rowling and Malala Yousafzai. Each woman gets a buoyant two-page spread featuring Clinton's concise biographies set against Boiger's inventive artwork. Executed in watercolor and ink, the pictures tell their own stories, whether it's Malala in the center of a huge pink flower, each petal featuring another girl who is learning, or Marie Curie standing in front of a blackboard decorated with pictures of the previous male Nobel Prize winners, her children tugging at her skirt. One missing element: a time line or note that explains when these women lived. A solid addition to women's history shelves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)