Girls on the Rise

by Amanda Gorman, Loveis Wise (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Amanda Gorman was inspired to take action after watching a 2013 speech by Malala Yousafzai, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, Gorman has been named the first National Youth Poet Laureate and become an inspiration in her own right. This book continues her mission to elevate and encourage people of all ages.

An electrifying new picture book by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Who are we? We are a billion voices, bright and brave; we are light, standing together in the fight. Girls are strong and powerful alone, but even stronger when they work to uplift one another. In this galvanizing original poem by presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, girls and girlhood are celebrated in their many forms, all beautiful, not for how they look but for how they look into the face of fear. Creating a rousing rallying cry with vivid illustrations by Loveis Wise, Gorman reminds us how girls have shaped our history while marching boldly into the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593624180
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	01/07/2025
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	3,025
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Amanda Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hill We Climb, Call Us What We Carry, and the children's picture books Change Sings and Something, Someday. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award and was honored with the Chairman's Award at the 55th NAACP Image Awards. In a groundbreaking collaboration with the Estée Lauder Companies as a Global Changemaker, she established the Writing Change initiative to support grassroots organizations dedicated to advancing literacy as a pathway to social change. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University and now lives in her hometown of Los Angeles.

Please visit her at TheAmandaGorman.com or on Instagram @AmandaSCGorman.

Loveis Wise is an artist, designer, creative director, and illustrator. Their work has been featured in publications like The New Yorker, TIME, and The New York Times. They've illustrated several picture books, including The People Remember by Ibi Zoboi, which won the Coretta Scott King Honor Award. They live in Los Angeles.

Please visit them at LoveisWise.com or on Instagram @LoveisWiseIllu.

Editorial Reviews

09/30/2024

“Who are we? We are girls on the rise,” begins Gorman (Something, Someday) in validating lines that ring with tonal resolve. As the pages turn in this conceptual picture book, groups of individuals work in concert, lifting a banner and protesting as well as resting and playing. Digital artwork from Wise (Magnolia Flower) incorporates collage elements and embellishments in portraying the communal scenes. On one spread, figures pass dishes at a candlelit table, while other pages show youths helping one another in the face of fear, donning wings, and contemplating well-known luminaries including Frida Kahlo and Marsha P. Johnson. Lines that embrace intersectional girlhood (“Some of us go by she/ And some of us go by they”) suggest both that “we are different people,/ Each of us a different shape and size,/ A different wonder and a different wise” and that “in our hearts, we are the same: We are a power, a movement,/ Pretty powerful.” As characters sow seeds and nurture the earth, final pages reveal a lush, easeful portrait: “Because when one girl is one the rise,/ It means everyone else is, too.” Characters are portrayed with various abilities, body types, and skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world." —Kirkus Reviews

"Gorman captures the essence of girlhood in its many forms, showing how every individual adds to a collective striving for justice, peace, and positive change. . . . In word and art, each page celebrates both the uniqueness and the unity of girlhood experiences across cultures, appearances, and personal journeys. An excellent read aloud, this commanding offering speaks to a future marked by strength and endless possibilities." —Booklist

From the Publisher

2024-10-12
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.

“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go byshe / And some of us go bythey.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.

Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews