Fantastically great women who worked wonders by Kate Pankhurst
Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781408899274. Paperback,
32 pages.
(Age: 7-14) Highly recommended. Themes: Women, Biography, Inventors,
Explorers, Mathematicians,. Kate Pankhurst, descendent of Emmeline
Pankhurst, is back with another wonderful book about women that is a
must for libraries and classrooms and will be eagerly sort after by
the fans of her previous books, Fantastically great women who
changed the world, Fantastically
great women who changed the world activity book and
Fantastically great women who made History by Kate
Pankhurst.
The list of women includes Junko Tabei, Sophie Blanchard, Maria
Merian, Elizabeth Magie, the London Matchgirls, Rosa May
Billinghurst, Katherine Johnson, Annette Kellerman, Katia Krafft,
Rosalind Franklin, James Barry, Madam C.J. Walker, and Lotte
Reiniger. These women's lives and achievements, which span many
centuries and many careers, will fascinate readers who may not have
heard of them before. This introduction will also give children
inspiration about the types of careers and pathways that they too
could have if they are prepared to be bold and follow their talents.
Illustrated with appealing quirky figures, each woman has a double
page which gives her main achievements, and then inserts expand the
information. The layout is one that will be particularly appealing
to young readers who like little bites of facts. Two women who stood
out were Maria Merian and Annette Kellerman. Maria travelled to
South America in 1699 in a quest to study exotic insects and her
drawings and work helped to transform people's knowledge about the
natural world. Annette Kellerman was an Australian pioneer,
demonstrating that women could lead more active healthy lives. Her
exploits as a swimmer encouraged to women to swim rather than bathe,
and changed the nature of bathing costumes so that women could move
in the water, rather than be dragged down by heavy bloomers.
This book would be very useful when looking at people who have
changed the world and the way it is seen. What fun to tell children
that Lotte Reiniger invented the multi-plane camera, a breakthrough
for animation, each time they watch a Disney animated film.
Pat Pledger