Written by: Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Illustrated by: Asun Amar
For ages: 4 years and up
Language: English
Topics Covered: Historical Figure, Women in STEM, Biography, Women in Architecture, Trailblazer, Feminist.
Summary: This book talks about the life of prolific architect, Zaha Hadid. She was creative from a young age, and was soon designing her own clothing and furniture. Zaha was lucky to travel around the world, becoming inspired by architecture and art. She went to boarding school in Switzerland and instead of skiing like her classmates she would stay indoors (we can relate to this) and design funky buildings with shapes that no one had ever created before.
Zaha became a professor and continued to trailblazer for women architects everywhere, smashing barriers. We love the timeline and real photos of Zaha in the back of the book!
This book was sent in consideration of the Best Books of 2019 list by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (an imprint of Quarto), but all opinions are our own!
About the Author & the Illustrator:
Mª Isabel Sanchez Vegara was born in Barcelona, Spain, and she is a writer and creative director perhaps best known as the author of much of the Little People, Big Dreams series. Six years ago, she decided to self-publish a book that had been in her mind for a long time. One day, one thousand copies of arrived at her home – she had no idea what she was going to do with them! She opened a little online shop, placed them to some pretty stores in her neighborhood and, one by one, she sold them all. Soon, publishing houses started to approach her to write books, but she was working on another idea of her own: a series about little people with BIG dreams. Each book tells the childhood story of one of the world’s female icons in an entertaining, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, allowing them to identify with the characters in each story.
Asun Amar is a freelance architect based in Barcelona, Spain! (She’s also difficult to track down online!)