Rebel Girls. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: Baby’s First Book of Extraordinary Women. Anonymous, Illus. Picture Book. Rebel Girls, 07/2022. [32]pp. $9.99. 978-1-9534-2437-2. ADDITIONAL. GRADES PRE-3.
Twenty-two notable women are celebrated using one or two sentences and one full-color graphic portrait in this board book that seems better suited to preschoolers rather than babies. For the spread on Joan Jett, the text says, “When Joan Jett strummed her guitar, she played loud and fast. ‘I love rock and roll,’ she shouted to the crowds. And they shouted back!” The women represent a vast time period and a global perspective, from Cleopatra to gymnast Simone Biles, and the next-to-last spread includes five more women. Libraries may want to stick with the original collective biography, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women (Timbuktu, 2016); this adaptation might be better as a gift book. Review based on an ARC.
Penny Peck, San Jose State University, iSchool