50 Unbelievable Women and Their Fascinating (and True!) Stories

November 30, 2015
Striking a witty and celebratory tone, Mitchell (Mistwalker) shares 50 brief stories about influential women past and present, including Joan Baez, Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo, Billie Jean King, Oprah Winfrey, and Minnie Spotted Wolf—the first Native American woman in the Marine Corps. Roughly three pages each, the entries are just rough sketches, but they still include intriguing details that might inspire readers to further research (Vera Wang turned to fashion after failing to become a professional ice-skater, and her future designs would include skating costumes). The arrangement of contemporary figures alongside those from the distant past should help give readers the sense that history is unfolding all around them. Available simultaneously: 50 Impressive Kids and Their Amazing (and True!) Stories. Ages 10–up. Author’s agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

November 15, 2015
A collection of biographies of 50 famous and not-so-famous females, both living and very long dead, who share a common thread of being strong--although not always admirable--women. Those (not all meritorious) sharing the limelight are a disparate group. They range from about 15 women from long ago, such as the Trung sisters, leaders in first-century Vietnam, and Countess Erzsebet Bathory, a prolific mass murderer in 17th-century Hungary, to contemporary women, including performers Ellen DeGeneres, Joan Baez, and Tina Fey. Business leaders (Anna Maria Chavez, Sheryl Sandberg, Suze Orman, and Estee Lauder), such scientists as Marie Curie and Ellen Ochoa, political activists, artists, and world leaders round out the group. A majority of the subjects are women of color--a very nice touch. Although the factual information seems accurate, these highly condensed biographies (some just one to two pages long) lack room for the nuances that characterize lives. Suppositions, especially regarding women who lived centuries ago, are presented as facts. Unnecessary sentence fragments and abundant exclamation points create an unfortunate flavor of Ripley's Believe It or Not-style ephemera. The exclamation points sometimes seem to diminish accomplishments: "Now, [Ellen] DeGeneres has the life she always wanted. She's famous, she's special--and people like her!" Only four attractive, caricaturelike illustrations were available for review. Primarily entertaining rather than informative, these slick, superficial biographies are more fluff than substance. (bibliography, personality-type quiz, vocabulary guide) (Collective biography. 10-14)

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November 15, 2015
Grades 5-8 Spanning every field from politics to fashion design, this book offers a lengthy list of fearless and remarkable ladies. Women, contemporary and historical, from all corners of the globe are included. The varied stories include Sheryl Sandberg's fight for equal pay, Olga of Kiev's military rebuff of arranged suitors, and Billie Jean King's victory in tennis' Battle of the Sexes. The narratives are brief, limited to two or three pages, and designed to whet the curiosity of readers. Often, the stories contain personal and formative elements: Estee Lauder being snubbed as a child by a wealthy shopper in a family store; Corazon Aquino driving away from the Malacanang Palace on the last day of her presidential term in her late-model family sedan. Fast paced and high interest, this collective biography utilizes stories of compassion, cunning, and bravery to explore what it means to be not just an accomplished woman but an accomplished human being.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2016

Gr 4-7-Mitchell introduces a group of amazing children and women from many fields. In Kids, she provides very brief chapters on impressive kids who represent many cultures and time periods; included are the famous, such as Stevie Wonder, Emma Watson, Joan of Arc, Louis Braille, and Anne Frank, and the little known (Marc Marquez, Q'orianka Kilcher, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, and Elagabalus). Likewise, 50 Unbelievable Women highlights both iconic (Catherine the Great, Marie Curie, Julia Child, and Harriet Tubman) and more obscure (Tegla Loroupe, Murasaki Shikibu, and Diane Humetewa) women. Most of the stories positively reflect the subjects' lives. However, the writing is dry and the information is scant, especially in Women. Though the figures are culturally diverse, political diversity is lacking, as all of the modern American women affiliated with politics espouse liberal views. Mitchell includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg (whom she erroneously refers to as "the first Jewish person to serve on the Supreme Court") but excludes Sandra Day O'Connor. Mitchell's desire to showcase the positive aspects of the people she depicts may lead to some misconceptions (readers could be forgiven for thinking that Catherine the Great was a nice ruler who truly cared about her subjects). Additionally, some of the subjects of Kids were already adults before they achieved anything of note (Mary Shelley was 19 when she wrote Frankenstein). VERDICT Despite the laudable topic, the sparse content and lack of balance make these volumes of little value. Children will be better served by Kathleen Krull's Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) (HMH, 2000) and Grosset & Dunlap's "Who Was" and "Who Is" series for more thorough explorations of notable individuals.-Margaret Nunes, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA

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