Written by: Joan Holub

Illustrated by: Daniel Roode

For Ages: 3-7 years

Language: English

Topics Covered: Strong Women, Activism, Civil Rights.

Summary: This board book introduces women throughout history at a basic level for young children. Impressive vocabulary to use with children will help develop their literacy skills, either by reading it themselves or listening and then learning the definitions for terms used such as ‘trailblazer’ ‘Supreme Court’ and ‘courage’. Women covered within these pages are: Ada Lovelace, Florence Nightingale, Coco Chanel (see why we don’t support featuring Coco Chanel in your classroom here), Rosa Parks, Maria Tallchief, Wilma Rudolph, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruby Bridges, Maya Lin, and Malala Yousafzi. The last two pages have twelve more featured ladies, with a short description of their work best known for.

This book is a simple introduction to both feminism and reading, great for early readers or young children first being introduced to literature.

About the Author & the Illustrator:

Joan Holub graduated from college in Texas with a fine arts degree, and then free-lanced as an art director at a graphic design firm for eight years. She dreamed of working in children’s books, so she moved to New York City and became associate art director in Scholastic trade books, where she designed books for children and worked with editors and illustrators. What a great job! In the 1990s, she began writing because she had story ideas that she thought would make good books. She submitted my stories to publishers, hoping they’d make them into books. However, they didn’t…at first. Back then, she called manuscripts she sent out “boomerangs” because she would mail them out, then they’d come right back, rejected. Eventually a wonderful editor named Jane O’Connor said yes. In 1996, I suddenly sold three manuscripts in three months to Grosset & Dunlap and Scholastic, including Boo Who? A Spooky Lift-the-Flap Book (Scholastic), which is still in print. Yippee! Now I write full time and have written and/or illustrated over 150 children’s books. I hope my books are so interesting and entertaining that kids can almost see the action, like a movie playing in their heads.

Daniel Roode is an illustrator and designer who draws inspiration from his French heritage, mid-century modern design, pop art, and nature. Daniel creates the bulk of his art digitally, an appropriate medium for his clean yet tactile aesthetic that has a distinct joie de vivre. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with his amazing wife Laura and their two funny cats.