Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

My daughter received this as a present from her and for the past year it has been used as a bedtime story each night for my 2 girls aged 8 and 10 years . The variety of stories of what these amazing women have achieved are inspiring for children and fascinating for us 'older' ones who may not know how much has been achieved by individual women over the years. The stories cover one page (perfect for bedtime), have beautiful illustrations and are a sound base of a story to spring anyone who wants to learn more and do their own research to find out more. I purchased 2 more of these books as presents for teachers who had children similar age to my girls and they already knew of the book and were very please to get a copy for their children! This is a great book and both myself and my girls highly recommend it! Enjoy!

These are my favorite books to read too and with my two girls. These books are perfect for bed time, they are short but interesting and entertaining. They teaching my girls about real people and give them inspirational role models. We have a few rebel girl books and will be buying more

This book is amazing and so inspiring, I do agree every girl should have a copy and I have already bought 4 copies as presents for birthdays. My opinion is that 1 page is a perfect amount of information to sum up that woman's life and achievements, too much more and it would feel too heavy and like school work. This is enough but also gives you the opportunity to research these people and learn more about them. Some women's stories are quite harrowing and I have brushed over some facts that I'm not sure my 7 year old daughter is ready to hear about (The Taliban murdering lots of people for example) but this is a book that we will read more than once and at different ages so what isn't appropriate now, will be in a few years. It is also helping my daughter understand so many different elements of life, from careers, ethnicity, countries, history, limitations (or no limitations as the women in the book show) gender inequalities and how they have over came these. It is inspiring and makes us talk about our achievements and know that there are no limits - you can do anything you set your mind to. I love it as much as my daughter. There is something I would like to address and that is the people who give this book 1 or 2 stars for the transgender page and the wording 'she knew she was a girl because she liked pink and sparkles, and now she gets to wear pink as much as she likes'. This might not have been the authors words but the child's words. Plus, giving the whole book 1 or 2 stars because of 1 sentence is very narrow minded, considering the book has the amazing achievements of 100 women and they are focusing on 1 sentence!!! I feel like they are missing the whole purpose of the book. My advice, buy the book!

This is a really stunning non-fiction book. Women of significance from all over the world and throughout time are sorted alphabetically, by their first name, in this book. First page is the prose, a fact file of who they were, their struggle, their triumph and on the adjacent page a stunning illustration paired with a unique quote from said person. I think this is a very important book for children every where. I bought this as a gift for my partner's niece and once I seen it, I bought it for my own 3 year old daughter. Interesting read at any age. You really don't know how just one story can inspire someone's life, must have. My boyfriend and I have discovered some very fascinating women in this book and we can't believe we have never heard of them before. Also, everyone grumbling about the story of the Trans girl, Coy - look it up. This child identified as a girl her whole life and didn't want to use the boys bathroom at school. She identifies as a girl and her government recognised that and agreed with her at the age of six. Everyone getting themselves in a twist because her family celebrated with a party with a pink cake and Coy wore a pink dress and sparkly shoes really needs to take a look at themselves. That statement doesn't define trans-children, it's just how this little girl wanted to celebrate her win with her family. My little girl is three and all her toys have been unisex from the moment she is born - she is currently obsessed with pink, sparkles, unicorns and mermaids. Let children be children. Gender is relative - society enforces rules with gender - Coy's story defied these typical gender rules. Her story could influence any girl or boy - or even just have them gain more understanding of the whole situation - public toilets do not need to be separated by gender - you can't put people into those boxes.

I like the concept a lot, and my daughters (just turned 8) like to hear the stories and have been really engaged. They like to guess from the picture what the woman did, and to work out how long ago they were alive or how old they are now. The stories are simple and engaging, and pitched well for children. Many of the women listed were entirely new to me, so it made for great learning, and we looked several up to find out more information. However, the choices of women to be included are somewhat eclectic, and some provoke some quite complicated discussions. For example, Coy Mathis is included for being a young transgender girl who won the right to use the girls' bathroom at school. I can see that this is a notable achievement and took a lot of bravery, but it doesn't mention that transgender is a relatively rare condition and that the idea of transitioning gender whilst in primary school is still somewhat controversial. As we have a girly-girl and a tomboy they were keen to ask whether tomboys are "a bit transgender". We ended up discussing how people ought to feel okay to dress and present themselves however they feel comfortable, regardless of their gender. But they have brought up the topic several times since, and I am aware that this might be uncomfortable for some parents (eg those with conservative or religious values). Likewise we read about Artemisia Gentileschi who was raped by her father's friend when he tutored her about painting, and was subsequently the first woman to successfully pursue a rape charge through court to a conviction (although she was tortured with thumb screws to try to undermine her disclosure, and the perpetrator never served his sentence). Although the story talks about these events in very neutral and non-explicit terms (something along the lines of "he wanted her to be his lover even though she did not want to be and he did not marry her") we again ended up in quite complex conversations when they asked "what does that mean?" and we looked up the full story. I was also surprised and disappointed at some of the women I most admire not being in the book. What about Joanne Rowling, the single mother who persisted through depression, poverty, adversity and 12 rejections by publishers to selling over 400 million Harry Potter books and donating millions of pounds to charity? Likewise no mention of Princess Diana or Anne Frank, when it had room for female surfers, motocross riders and young inventors, who whilst admirable have made less impact on the world.

Excellent book

I'm reading this with my 6 year old daughter, this book has 100 stories to read, discuss and look up on Google. I'm not so sure about the Margaret Thatcher bedtime story, but even that becomes a topic for exploration with my daughter. Excellent and mind expanding for both parent and child. --------------------------------------------------------------- 11 weeks later and it's all read - one or two stories nearly every week for 11 weeks. Excellent value, educational and stimulating. When I bought it, I wouldn't have imagined how taken my daughter would be by Rosa Parks. --------------------------------------------------------------- 6 months later and she's reading it to me. Every evening I had to answer more or less standard questions - is she alive? was she alive when you were a baby? was she alive when your mummy was a baby? what did she say? what did she do? can I look at a picture of her on your phone? --------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Months later my daughter is almost 7. More than half the time that I've caught her reading in bed when she's supposed to be sleeping, it has been this book. --------------------------------------------------------------- 18 months on, and the book has run its course. I think it now falls into teh category of much loved but no longer read. I'd highly recommend this book for any girl aged 6-10.

So I have bought this for my 12 year old sister for Christmas (2017) so she will receive it in a couple of months as I thought it would be good for her to learn about women who changed the world or challenged something in some way, especially as quite often in school they have projects or essays on inspirational people so it would give her a good amount to write about. However I have leafed through the book myself and wow, beautiful art work and beautiful information. I am going to buy myself a book of this too as I think this will be great for an art prompt book and great for me to learn, not just about stories of women that are well known but some lesser known ones. There are 100 'stories' on real life, past and present female figures who have changed the world, contributed to something, overcame adversity. As far as I have seen each story/info sheet is one page with a rather beautiful piece of art on the other. The art styles vary so from different artists I presume. The 'stories' are simple to understand, enough information to learn and give a comprehensive taste of what the stories of the women were which can allow you to decide whether you want to look into the story/background of the woman more or not but neither are they too brief so you don't feel like you haven't learnt a lot.