One-page fairy tale-esque biographies...

...of women and girls who've made a difference.

I've seen these books advertised, seen them on the shelves, but never felt inclined to try one. Seeing an Audible copy recently released, I thought I'd try it thinking it might be something to share with my boys some day.

The authors have collected stories of inspirational girls and women from countries around the world, a rather impressive list actually - I had heard of less than half of them I would say. Which made it quite fascinating and not just simplified notes on women I'd come across before.

The breadth is admirable too - we have writers and artists, dancers and aviators, scientists and mathematicians, spies and rebels, activists and transgender trailblazers. Listed alphabetically, you could browse or read sequentially, they move backward and forward in time and hop between countries and subjects.

I found it both well put-together and inspiring curiosity. It can't be easy summarising a complicated and very adult life history into one page - Elizabeth I for example, with her parentage, long and eventful reign and influence. The women's important attributes are included, a key quote given where possible and the language used simplifies each story to make it both suitable and accessible for a primary- or secondary-aged readership.

There were many characters here I wanted to find out more about, and I'm sure many children will head to Google/Wikipedia to look up more detail. This is where paper copies are more useful, as I have no idea of the spellings of many of these names, having only heard them once.

I could find no paper materials sent to me that Audible says were sent with the audio files (if anyone knows how to access these, please let me know!), so I'm not sure what extra information/questions they contain.

I loved the idea of the 'fairy tale' structure of these stories up to a point. The 'once there was a girl' repeated each time worked. With 'strong' mentioned regularly, it makes a change from the demure heroines of the traditional fairy tales. But I also kept coming back to the opinion that this also had one flaw. Because of the 'potted history' nature of each history, it does almost seem inevitable and effortless that each achieved what they did, even with mention of hard work - so many overcome adversity without us being able to see just what was involved. A recommendation from me would be to read this in conjunction with Matthew Syed's excellent motivational book for children 'You Are Awesome' which focuses on this very issue and reminds children of the years of toil any of these achievements would have taken.

Parents and teachers would do well to read these one at a time with children, to be able to look up the longer stories between them and digest the cultural importance and influence of each. An audio version I personally feel would not benefit most readers as much as a paper copy would.

I loved the fact that we had multiple readers conveying these stories to us. Narrators from different cultural backgrounds themselves, all very clear and amiable, and helped keep track of different stories as the voices changed for each biography.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.

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7 people found this helpful

Inspirational for girls AND boys

My wife was interested to find out that I'm a feminist. To me, sexism is as perversely wrong as racism. What women and girls have had to put up with (and still have to put up with) really beggars belief.

There were some interesting choices of mini biographies in this book. Some brought tears to my eyes, as such great challenges were overcome. Most were like that. Other choices were more curious, such as Catherine the Great, whose empire-building might be questioned today. I hope my daughter doesn't become a pirate!

Still, this is an inspirational book, and I'm very glad that we've listed to it. It was great to hear readers with such diverse accents, which really added extra vitality to the recording.

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4 people found this helpful

questionable choices

Okay, so I know this is for kids but really? As a teacher I know you don't dumb things down for kids, just explain. The Thatcher choice knocked me for six. Yes, she was the 1st female PM and thus deserved a place but to say, "she took free milk away from children and the people disliked her but she won the Falklands War so the people celebrated," is ridiculous to say the least. The inclusion of Yoko Ono after her views on black women and race...I was disappointed. This book could have been fantastic. There are some amazing examples, Malala for a start, Marie Curie etc. But Yoko Ono? Disappointing.

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1 person found this helpful

I wish I had this book when I was growing up!

This is a must have for young impressionable minds and a reminder of girl power.

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1 person found this helpful

Useless

This is supposed to be an inspiration to girls and women out there, but this is a disaster. Stories lack detail. There is one pattern to all of them she wanted - she got there. No depth. No takeaways apart from just wanting something. I don't recommend this.

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1 person found this helpful

very good and inspiring

good,I loved the inspirational quotes this book made me feel inspired very well done !!!

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Bit dull

My daughter found it a bit boring... Not greatest person that read it out! xxx

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Very inspiring for young women

Good stories and lots of inspiring women. The only thing is... I would recommend to get the book instead because of all the beautiful illustrations. If you enjoy it, (which I suppose I did,) there is a second book too.

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I love it so so much it was great listening to

great to listen to it was lovely and I would recommend it to over people

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amazing!!!!

I loved it, please read it. Perfect for any woman who needs a bit of inspiration or positivity in her day, I loved it from start to finish and have learnt so much!

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