Hooray for Women!

Gr 3-6–Williams’s latest nonfiction work celebrates real women throughout history, bridging actual events with a kid-friendly, graphic novel format. Done in watercolors and ink, the comic biographies of each woman are arranged in chronological order, from Cleopatra VII to Malala Yousafzai. Each comic strip recounts the life of their subject, what they accomplished, and how they have inspired others. The graphic novel artwork for each biography matches the style for each person: the first block names the woman, the years they were alive, and an inspiring quote from them. Each story is framed by cute animals and modern children commenting what was happening in the story or stating facts about each figure. There are 16 biographies of women, each with a length of two pages, making this an easy and quick read for young minds. The back matter has a multitude of mini-bios followed by a “Dear Reader” note and ending with a thorough index. While the choice to frame the comic with children and animals and to include their commentary in the margin is cute and adds depth to each biography, it sometimes makes the page overwhelming to view. And because everything is displayed in such a small space, the font appears equally small.