Three cheers for women! by Marcia Williams
Walker Books, 2017. ISBN 9781406374865
(Age: 7+) Highly recommended. Themes: Women. Marcia Williams returns
with her signature comic-strip style in Three cheers for women!
which celebrates over 70 women who have made a great contribution in
all walks of life throughout history. The front end papers grab the
eye with a multitude of banners featuring the areas that women have
excelled in: leaders, inventors, discoverers, thinkers, authors,
environmentalist, doctors, campaigners to name just a few. Of the
women featured some are very well known and some less famous, but all
have led interesting and inspirational lives. The women featured
with their own double page spread are Cleopatra, Boudicca,
Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Florence
Nightingale, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Frida
Kahlo, Wangari Maathai, Mae C. Jemison, Cathy Freeman and Malala.
Then there is a section for Leaders and World-changers, with brief
biographical information about women like Edith Cowan, Australian
politician and social campaigner and Sheryl Sandberg, American
executive, activist and author. Readers will learn much about their
lives and will be inspired to follow up and do research on them.
Another double page spread looks at Sportswomen and Creatives and
readers will have fun finding names they know (JK Rowling, Beatrix
Potter) as well as ones they probably haven't heard of (Zaha Hadid,
Iraqi-British architect, and Paula Rego, Portuguese artist). Hooray
for Scientists, Pioneers and Adventurers features Dame Jane Goodall,
Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse, Rachel Carson, conservationist,
among many others.
There is a Dear Reader letter at the end from Williams that states
that the women in the book have reminded her "that, whether you are
a boy or a girl, you are never too young to too old to do something
world changing!" A clear index concludes the book.
The facts, quotes and great cartoon style will grab the reader's
attention and the achievements of the women will remain in the mind
as a reminder of what these individuals have achieved. This is
highly recommended for any library or classroom.
Pat Pledger