Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History

Gr 6 Up—Schatz and Stahl present profiles of 40 extraordinary women from around the globe. The short biographies cover each woman's life and accomplishments and the great odds they faced. Coming from many continents and different time periods, all the women are portrayed as bold and heroic. There are subjects who lived thousands of years ago, such as the ancient Mesopotamian writer Enheduanna and Hatshepsut, the first and only female king of ancient Egypt. Included also are Grace "Granuaile" O'Malley, a 16th-century Irish sea captain; Berta and Nicolasa Quintreman, sisters belonging to the Mapuche people who inspired resistance against corporate destruction of land in 1980s Chile; and Sophie Scholl, who spoke out against the Nazis. A broad array of athletes, musicians, scientists, environmentalists, political activists, artists, and more create a vast tapestry of women's achievements and contributions to their individual societies and the world as a whole. Each profile includes a striking cut-paper portrait. The ending chapter, "The Stateless," is a call-and-response investigation of how the state of displaced peoples, refugees, and asylum seekers is a feminist issue. The call-and-response format oscillates between abstract thoughts ("What does it mean to be from a place? Or to be foreign? To belong, to not belong") and more formal, statistics-based answers ("Of the 60 million forcibly displaced people…almost 80 percent are women and children."). The volume concludes with a list, ordered alphabetically by country, of 250 additional women deemed exceptional.