Girl Squads

August 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up-This feminist anthology covers women doing awesome things across different time periods, including contemporary squads like Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. The book is divided into sections featuring athletes, political and social activists, artists, warriors, and scientists. The chapters aren't long-about 10 pages each. Maggs's writing style is familiar and informal and often times humorous. (On why a Scottish school didn't want to admit female students: "They also argued that the presence of female students would be distracting and tempting, which sounds like a case of That's your problem, ' but, you know, whatever.") The book also does a fine job of focusing on and celebrating the accomplishments of women of color, including mathematician Kathryn Peddrew and Salomé Ureña, the first national poet of the Dominican Republic. VERDICT An excellent addition to libraries in need of collected biographies.-Paige Garrison, The Davis Academy, Sandy Springs, GA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
Writer, comics artist, and video-game creator Maggs' (Wonder Women, 2016) latest is an impressively researched and fascinating compendium of history's greatest gal pals. This collection of mini biographies is organized by category: athlete squads, political and activist squads, warrior squads, scientist squads, and artist squads. Shedding light on some of history's forgotten sheroes, Maggs also reminds readers that many important women did not stand alone but instead triumphed with their best female friends by their sides. In a cultural landscape where women are often pitted against each other (think The Bachelor), Maggs shows that women have been fierce allies since the beginning of time. Some of the most memorable squads include the Haenyeo, the Korean free divers who gather valuables together from the bottom of the Korean straits, most of them single-handedly supporting their families; the women of SCOTUS (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor), who, despite political differences, support each other through the trials of their difficult jobs; and the Zohra Orchestra, Afghanistan's first all-female musical ensemble.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)