Brave and Bold
story time
good books for bigs and littles
Brave and Bold
Brave and Bold: Female DC Super Heroes Take On the Universe and Fearless and Fantastic: Female Superheroes Save the World (Marvel), both by Sam Maggs, are compendia of female superheroes. We’ve gotten into superheroes something big around here due to my son who is OBSESSED with them. I was never into superheroes or comic books as a kid, so I’m learning about the world of magical hammers and telepathy with underwater life as an adult. And while I do sometimes tire of reading the same favorite superhero stories over and over, I have enjoyed developing expertise in this fascinating field.
Brave and Bold and Fearless and Fantastic’s superheroines are smart, adventurous, and athletic. Many of them are teenagers. They’re racially diverse, intelligent, strong, and vary in their sexual preferences—in other words, they’re a pretty accurate picture of kids today. This book changed my thinking about superheroes, and were I a kid today, I think I could find something inspirational and identifiable in them. P.S. Toddlers love them too.
For a list of other Lady Super Hero-inspired books for kids check out this list from Almighty Girl.com
Image from mariavicente.com
Women in Science
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky, was a Christmas gift to my daughter (Thanks, Aunt Joan!). Despite being intended for a child, I have learned a ton from this book. The book describes the lives and scientific achievements of women spanning from 350 CE to the present day, and it includes scientists in fields as diverse as cytogenetics, botany, astrophysics, and chemistry.
There are amazing revelations in this book, and a host of amazing trivia facts. For fun, I’ve outlined just a few below:
Mae Jemison, who became the first African American woman in space, was inspired to become an astronaut by watching Lieutenant Uhuru on Star Trek.
Elizabeth Blackwell was admitted to medical school as a practical joke by the all-male student body. She graduated first in her class.
Hypatia is the first female mathematician in recorded history. She lectured and wrote extensively and had a religiously diverse audience (she was a pagan), but she was eventually killed by an angry mob—in part for her religious beliefs.
Mae Jemison, Image: NASA.gov
One theme is the determination of these women to pursue the life of the mind, despite rampant sexism (as well as racism, religious persecution, poverty, health issues, and xenophobia). Another big takeaway for me was that so many of these women had revolutionary discoveries that inform things we experience, use and understand in our everyday lives (there’s a Nobel Prize winner seemingly every three pages), and yet with one or two exceptions, I’ve never heard of any of these women…until now.
A last memorable point is that recognition, when it came for many of these women, came after decades of unrewarded toil. Luckily, many of them seemed to believe the work was its own reward. As a woman raising a young girl, I’m so glad that my daughter learns about the accomplishments of these women early in her life, and I’m glad she sees that, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable barriers, smart, strong women eventually get their just desserts!
Rachel Ignotofsky has several other cool books available at her site or your local library.
Illustration and words: Rachel Ignotofsky
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