English & Spanish
MG & Up
english
Juliet Menéndez
summary
I couldn’t let Women’s History Month end without featuring this incredible book! First of all, how gorgeous is this cover? I’m kind of obsessed with the limited color palette and over the moon to see how many countries are represented (helpfully with flags by the names in the table of contents) and how many names were new to me. In the book are fairly well-known figures like Dolores Huerta and Frida Kahlo but I was also introduced to other badass ladies like astrophysicist Wanda Díaz-Merced, activist Berta Cáceres, and forensic anthropologist Mercedes Doretti.
Each two page spread is a full page illustration of one of the women profiled, and a short biography on the other page. The story of each woman discusses early life, professional accomplishments, and reads about as long as a typical picture book. But it makes me want so much more information! I’m so thrilled that author/illustrator Juliet Menéndez is also Latinx, I think that allows for more nuanced understanding and finding of lesser-known individuals (from a North American lens) and a keen eye for finding quality primary sources (the back matter is very impressive!) to cite.
this book was kindly sent by Macmillan but all opinions are my own. It’s completely gorgeous and I’m slowly going on deep dives for each of these amazing Latinas!
Juliet Menéndez
From Juliet’s website: “I am an author, illustrator, and teacher living between Guatemala City, New York, and Paris. My current living arrangement is pretty much as round-about as my education–a liberal arts school in Minnesota, an art school in Italy, French lessons at the Alliance Française in Guatemala, a design school in Paris, and a graduate program for bilingual education in New York. A question I hear a lot: “Where are you from?””
