I discovered, Girls who rocked the world by Michelle McCann & Amelie Welden at my local library. I was looking for biographies I could use in my Chaplaincy role at a primary school. It’s a fascinating read. There are 42 stories of girls who have made a significant impact in lots of different fields. The wide variety of locations, historical settings and backgrounds makes for a smorgasbord of experiences. All the girls had to overcome obstacles, whether they were prejudices, poverty, lack of education or family expectations. They all showed amazing determination and perseverance.
The authors chose girls who had seriously started to have an impact by the time they were twenty. This criteria meant a lot of significant females were left out, especially those whose achievements required years of study. Nevertheless even with this strict criteria the number of remarkable accomplishments especially in those so young is amazing.
Each story is only a few pages long so it is suitable to read to children or have them read it themselves. Some stories deal with quite horrific events such as war but these were well handled by the authors, neither going into unnecessary details but not ignoring the trauma either. My favourite stories were Hatshepsut, Sacagawea, Florence Nightingale, Coco Chanel, Golda Meir and Anne Frank.
An excellent read.
I’ve discovered that Michelle McCann has also written a book called Boys Who Rocked the World so I’ll be checking that out soon.
