Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Amelia to Zora: Twenty Six women who changed the world
Illustrator: Megan Halsey , Sean Addy
Nonfiction
For ages 7 to 10
Charlesbridge, 2005 ISBN: 978-1570915222
We are going to take an alphabetical journey into the lives of twenty-six extraordinary women who through their art, their writing, their daring, and their courage defied the odds, overcame sexism, and made a difference in the world.
We begin with A is for Amelia Earhart, a woman who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Amelia loved to fly and even though it was thought unseemly for a woman to take on such a ?manly? activity, Amelia did it anyway.
For the letter C we get to meet Cecilia Payne-Caposchkin who was the first woman professor at Harvard University. Cecilia was am astronomer who had to battle to get the same rights and privileges that her male colleagues took for granted.
Nawal El Sadaawi is the woman who is featured on the N page. Born in Egypt Nawal has spent her life fighting for the rights of women in her country. Nawal has written numerous books about "the treatment of women in the Arab world" and has even been imprisoned and threatened for speaking out.
For each woman mentioned in this superb collection the author gives her readers a short but comprehensive biography and a quote of something they said. Interesting multimedia collages form the backdrop for each page. In each biography the author emphasizes how groundbreaking the women's achievements were and how many of them had to fight to be allowed to do what they wanted to do.
These carefully chosen and inspirational biographies give the read an overall picture of how women have changed the world through their creativity, their compassion, their intellect, and their courage.
