Girls Who Rocked the World: Heroines from Joan of Arc to Mother Teresa

by Michelle R. McCann, Amelie Welden, Daniel Hahn (Illustrations)

“Young women looking for inspiration will surely find it” ( Booklist ) in these profiles of forty-six movers and shakers who made their mark before they turned twenty.This fun and inspiring collection of influential stories provides forty-six illustrated examples of strong, independent female role models, all of whom first impacted the world as teenagers or younger. Originally published in two volumes over a decade ago, this fully updated and expanded edition of Girls Who Rocked the World spans a variety of achievements, interests, and backgrounds, from Harriet Tubman and Coco Chanel to S.E. Hinton and Maya Lin—each with her own incredible story of how she created life-changing opportunities for herself and the world. Personal aspirations from today’s young women are interspersed throughout the book, which also includes profiles of teenagers who are rocking the world right now—girls like Winter Vinecki, the creator of the nonprofit organization Team Winter, and Jazmin Whitley, the youngest designer to show at L.A. Fashion Week.It’s never too soon to start making a difference, and these exhilarating examples of girl power in action make for ideal motivation.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Feminism, Middle Grade, Biography Memoir, Historical

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 2012

About the author

Ever since I was a girl, I've always wanted to create books. In college I studied children's lit at Brown University, then I got my MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College. For the past 25 years I've been editing and art directing children’s books, collaborating with authors and illustrators on hundreds of titles. I've also written some children’s books of my own, which have won awards like the Oregon Book Award, Jewish Book Council’s Best Illustrated Book, IRA Notable Book, and Simon Wiesenthal’s Once Upon A World Award. For 13 years I shared my passion teaching Children’s Book Publishing at Portland State University. And when I don't have my nose buried in a book, I'm an adrenaline junkie--I love to snowboard, whitewater raft and scuba dive. I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband, two kids and three cats.

Reviews

[Fatma Al Zahraa Yehia · Rating 3 out of 5]

What i liked most about that book was it shed light on forgotten or not widely known women. The writing of characters of the book was mostly average. Few were exceptional, inspiring and gave an interesting story like the Bronte sisters, the Trung sisters, Florence nightingale and Wilma Rudolf.

While the quarter of the characters were just like filling for the pages of book. Their stories didn't have much to be told but they were just women who were smart without much done in their life to deserve to be mentioned. Which prolonged the length of the book without gaining real benefit.

Some women i didn't find that they made their way to success with real integrity like Golda Meir, or without having a great support from a man like Evita Peron and Coco Chanel.

I think the writers should have made better efforts on looking for more inspiring lives. Women who had a great, interesting and inspiring story to be told.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a way that may give a history lesson and inspire.

[Atzimba · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far this book has been okay. The entries are short although I'm sure they could have been much more detail added about the lives of these women. Also, one thing I really disliked was that there were no pictures of these women. I found myself searching the internet for these women and their work. I'll make a final assessment of the book once I'm done.

[كيكه الوزير · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings. I would say this book is appropriate for ages over 10 (there are many mentions of violence and death). I enjoyed the conciseness of facts and did learn about some new historical figures. My biggest complaint is that the book focuses on Western women's accomplishments and most of the women will have been people who are already well known. I understand the limitations of finding remarkable women who did something before they were 20, though, so perhaps there really are so few. But out of 46, only 12 women were not born in Europe or the United States. I found the chapter on Golda Meir tasteless, the book could have talked about her accomplishments without erasing the suffering of the native Palestinian people. I realize a lot of things necessitated being exaggerated or looked over, but some chapters certainly suffered for that, especially considering the average age of the reader will likely be old enough to want for more. The book should have also included real photos/paintings of the individuals, in my opinion. I loved the chapter on the Night Witches (I'll have to read the recommended "Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia’s Women Pilots in World War II"). I also loved that a Yemeni was mentioned, a country that is often completely forgotten. It would have been interesting to note that Maya Lin was also on the jury for the 911 memorial in New York that chose Michael Arad's 'Reflecting Absence', which was inspired by Maya's own memorial. There are many other minor comments and critiques of the book, but overall I did enjoy reading it and I think it would make excellent reading material for a young teen or young adult.

[Anis Suraya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book which I wish I had as a textbook in school. It's mind-blowing to know hidden histories of some of the figures and their stories should be exposed more often. Their stories give hopes to women and girls especially, no matter who you are, you have what it takes to contribute to the betterment of the world and make history of your own. Their stories,explains different personalities, shows that you don't necessarily have to be loud to make your voice heard BUT the point is, you do you. Different girls/women of different personalities/characters can make history of their own, no matter if you're an introvert, extrovert or even an ambivert. I'm glad that this book is out in the market and hoping that more books like this will be published in the future, so I can continue to share real-life stories of remarkable women to my future generation.

[Jada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girls Who Rocked the World is an amazing book that I’m currently reading, I personally love this book because it’s all about women who made a difference and and changed the way women live in now with our, freedom, and peace, and have equal rights. And their are so many women that had made a difference in the world that I didn’t even know about just like The Trung Sisters, Phillis Wheatley, Joan of Arc, and Florence Nightingale and she is very interesting, and there are so much more people that I didn’t know about that are now very interesting. And I am loving this book right, and after this book I am going to start this other book called “Boys Who Rocked the World” which is the same thing but it’s boys who made a difference in the world we now live in. And I hope you guys will choose to read this book and give it a 5 stars, also this book is for BOYS AND GIRLS, NOT JUST GIRLS. Enjoy ;)

[Emilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea is cute. Thats it. Because the execution consists of praising slave owners, zionists, antisemites, and more.
Appalling stuff.

[Gustavo.M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girls who rocked the world is about women who did something important that make them . I recommend this book to people who want to know about the world and what made them important. I give this book a 7 out of 10 .

[Aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great! It's so inspirational knowing what other young women have done throughout history to change the world.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it❤️❤️

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book at first but it grew on me and I found myself researching more about several of these awesome women. I had checked it out of the library to see if it would be a good book to read to my kids and enjoyed the stories enough to buy the book. We're going to go through them together (my 9- and 7-year-old girls and myself). I didn't love the overtly girly/feminist language in some places but the stories are definitely inspiring and just having a few pages on a person is enough to learn without getting overwhelmed. It's a great introduction to many parts of history and gives many strong female role models to learn about.

[Lucy Madsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I LOVED this book when I read it in elementary school. It left me incredibly proud of women and feminists.

Glancing through it recently however. . . why is a slave owner (Eliza Lucas Pinckney) included as an "agricultural entrepreneur"? Why is Coco Chanel included, with her Nazi sympathizing glossed over between being a so-called style icon in the 1930s and 1950s (conveniently not during the 1940s)?
The inclusion of Golda Meir is disturbing, and I remember being convinced as a kid by the book that the creation of the country of Israel was a wonderful idea. The chapter carefully ignores Palestinians (much like Meir herself) and why they might rightfully oppose Jewish settlers.

[Tracie Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another good book with short biographies about the lives of women who did notable things at a young age. I liked that a while a lot of the women were known, there was also a diverse cast of lesser known women as well. I also liked that after each woman's story they included a small section which gave the reader a teen girl and how they plan to do good in the world. I would reccomend this mostly for a tween or young teen audience, though older people may also find enjoyment in the stories.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 out of 5 stars.

This book was so informative and well-written.

I really recommend picking this book up, especially if you are someone who has a young daughter. Read it, educate yourself of these wonderful females throughout history, and share it with your daughters (and sons, because the more we teach young kids that gender plays no part in success the better life will be). Show young girls that there are kids just like them who changed the freaking world!

[Karina Pochet Sotela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girls who rocked the world is one of the best book of female progression; it does not only shows their personal lives but also the different struggles they had to achieve what they dreamt of. Also it has a wide gama of fields and time.
Simply a book which inspires all types of ladies, from young ones to mature ones ...they show us that nothing is impossible if we just work hard and set a goal and vision.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, concise small biographies of women who rocked the world early in their teens or childhood. These biographies of two or three pages pack a punch and encourage the reader to read and investigate further into these heroines who have claims to fame in a variety of fields such as science, sport and entertainment. Although aimed at younger readers than myself I found it worthwhile to read.

[Roisin Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in a duet with biographies about famous women throughout history. I found it really interesting to learn about the women, and it was also very inspiring! I think that girls and boys of all ages would enjoy this book. My favorite thing about this book is that it provides a short story from the person’s life, and then it provides the whole life story.

[Maria Waltner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good mix of cultural, racial and throughout time - liked that they chose women who started making contributions when they were still teens which offered up some names and stories that I did not already know. I would recommend this to any of the strong-willed young women I know.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book my daughter read and suggested I read. She’s very young but could use her own Goodreads app!

She got this book for her birthday and loved it right away due to the title. It includes a great variety of strong women.

[mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a good book. My daughter normally does not like books and has "no" interest. When her cousin was raving about it, it had her say well... I will give it a try. After that she could not put the book down. And is begging me to get the whole series!

[Hattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely aimed at a young audience (10-12?) but nevertheless very interesting.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Some interesting choices in this book that might not have put in (Chanel and Mother Theresa come to mind) but a really great collection of amazing women!

[Zuzanna M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I hadn’t been forced to read this book for class I wouldn’t of picked it up, but it ended up being pretty good though!

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT A GREAT BOOK! Omg this book is sooooooo good! You MUST read this book. I promise you will Thank me later.... I couldn't put this book done, it was so good.

[Emma Rose Puckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an inspiring book although now I feel very small and that have very little achievements haha!

[Chloe Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its an interesting and easy read,
I found The Night Witches, The Trung Sisters and Rigoberta Menchú really interesting, I really want to read 'I, Rigoberta Menchú'

[Zanny S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how it is about history

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great little book to learn the basics of women who have changed the world we live in

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost every chapter ended with me thinking that I had large gaps in my education. Glad to have learned a little bit about a few of the many remarkable women in history

[Salwa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Biased writing, liked maybe 2 stories