Fight Like a Girl: 50 Feminists Who Changed the World

by Laura Barcella

Overview

Nearly every day there's another news story or pop cultural anecdote related to feminism and women's rights. #YesAllWomen, conversations around consent, equal pay, access to contraception, and a host of other issues are foremost topics of conversation in American (and worldwide) media right now. Today's teens are encountering these issues from a different perspective than any generation has had before, but what's often missing from the current discussion is an understanding of how we've gotten to this place. Fight Like a Girl will familiarize readers with the history of feminist activism, in an effort to celebrate those who paved the way and draw attention to those who are working hard to further the cause of women's rights. Profiles of both famous and lesser-known feminists will be featured alongside descriptions of how their actions affected the overall feminist cause, and unique portraits (artist's renderings) of the feminists themselves. This artistic addition will take the book beyond simply an informational text, and make it a treasure of a book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936976966
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2016
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Laura Barcella is a freelance writer and editor who can't decide between New York and San Francisco. During the past ten-plus years, this pop-culture junkie and Washington, DC, native has written about feminism, music, news, and lifestyle topics for more than forty publications, including Salon.com, the Village Voice, ELLEGirl, Time Out New York, NYLON, Bust, CNN.com, and the Chicago Sun-Times. As far as other books go, Laura is the editor of the anthology Madonna and Me, a book of essays by female writers about Madonna (Soft Skull Press, March 2012). She has also contributed to the anthologies BitchFest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine, Somebody's Child: Stories About Adoption, and It's All in Her Head, a forthcoming collection about women's mental health. When she's not writing or editing, she's reading magazines, at the movies, watching bad reality TV, eating imported gummy candy, or hanging out with animals (she has two cats and a dog, all rescues).

Editorial Reviews

05/16/2016
Taking an expansive view of feminism, Barcella offers chronologically organized capsule biographies of 50 influential women, bookended by Mary Wollstonecraft and Malala Yousafzai. Other featured figures include Judy Blume, Sally Ride, Ani DiFranco, Sandra Cisneros, and Beyoncé, the blend of musicians, writers, politicians, scientists, and activists creating a vast tapestry of accomplishment. In concise but eloquent writing, Barcella divides each woman’s story into three sections (“Her Legacy,” “Her Life Story,” “Her Cool Credentials”); of author Roxane Gay, she remarks, “Gay’s willingness to embrace all her contradictions has helped make it okay for other women to do the same.” Pierre’s black-and-white portraits are a subtle accompaniment in this wide-ranging tribute to trailblazing women. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"The feminist history book everyone should read. . . Way cooler than any history book. . . Meant to be fun enough for both teens and adults to get into, the book educates readers not only about women’s rights, but also race and transgender rights, all of which are intertwined.”–Metro US

“Written for a young-adult audience, but it’s worth a read at any age. . . The real treasure of this book is the bibliography.  . . [It] will inspire further feminist exploration for years to come.” –Bust Magazine  

“[A] snappy portrayal of feminist history. . . A worthy introduction of the feminist teen and an excellent choice for Women’s History Month.”—School Library Journal

"The inclusion of trans women, celebrity performers, and women who assert a lack of comfort with feminism add to the book’s inclusivity and make it even more likely to spur stimulating discussions."—Booklist

“[C]ombines profiles  of influential women, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Beyonce, with portraits, sidebars and memorable quotes.”–Tampa Bay Times

"Although Fight Like a Girl: 50 Feminists Who Changed the World is written especially for young adults and teenagers, adults will also find this biographical-snapshot compilation of women who dared to make the world a better place enlightening. . . Highly recommended.”—Children's Bookwatch

“[C]oncise but eloquent. . . [A] wide-ranging tribute to trailblazing women.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

04/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—This title achieves a snappy portrayal of feminist history by focusing on 50 world-changing feminists. Barcella uses each minibiography as a place to define and explore the many ways people practice feminism. The list includes trans, black, Middle Eastern, Native American, and other women from across history (though it's light on Latina and Asian women), covering the arts, politics, sports, science, and other disciplines. Barcella examines both "big-name" feminists and lesser-known women. Similar in format to a zine, this work has a conversational tone that doesn't shy away from swear words or movement vocabulary. For each woman, there is a claim to fame listed that is in relation to her career and country of origin, followed by a couple of paragraphs on her life and legacy, ending with "Cool Credentials" (bullet points with some highlights from her life) and "Quotables" (a few quotes by the person profiled). The art and graphics are irregular; most of the women profiled get their own line-drawn portrait, a few receive only a drawing representing some aspect of their life, and some get nothing at all. The bibliography is immense but serves as the only back matter to this volume. The book could have benefitted from a glossary in the front, as it explains terms (such as intersectional feminism and Marxism) as they come up, but a framework for the terms used often (oppression) could have been valuable. This is a good selection for teens who like MTV's Decoded or BuzzFeed lists or who, like the author, are inspired by rallies and social justice heroes. VERDICT A worthy introduction for the feminist teen and an excellent choice for Women's History Month and other targeted collections.—Lisa Nowlain, Darien Library, CT

School Library Journal