Amelia+Bloomer+List+2018

= 2018 Amelia Bloomer List Highlights Feminist Books for Young Readers =

The Amelia Bloomer Project creates an annual booklist of the best feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18. Named for Amelia Bloomer, a pioneering 19th century newspaper editor, feminist thinker, public speaker and suffragist, the list features books about girls and women that spur the imagination while confronting traditional female stereotypes. The bibliography is intended to aid children and teens in selecting high-quality books; it may also be used as a recommended reading list for youth and those who interact with them and as a collection development or reader’s advisory tool for librarians.

The Amelia Bloomer Project is part of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. This year's committee members are Ann Bever, Katelyn Browne, Jennie Law, Katie Mitchell, Lalitha Nataraj, Linda Parsons, Kelly Rottmund, Gesse Stark-Smith, April Witteveen, and Joy Worland.

For the full Amelia Bloomer list and more information, please visit the Amelia Bloomer Project blog.



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 * **Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar (Lee & Low/Tu Books).** In 1942, after Mahatma Gandhi asks Indians to give one family member to the freedom movement, ten-year-old Anjali is devastated to think of her father risking his life for the freedom struggle. But it turns out he isn’t the one joining. Anjali’s mother is. Inspired by her great-grandmother’s experience working with Gandhi, Supriya Kelkar shines a light on the Indian freedom movement in this poignant debut.
 * **Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time by Tanya Lee Stone (Random House/Wendy Lamb).** Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers the opportunity to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty. Tanya Lee Stone deftly uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the film, focusing both on the girls captured on camera and many others. She examines barriers to education in depth—early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, sexual trafficking, gender discrimination, and poverty—and shows how removing these barriers means not only a better life for girls, but safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.
 * **Hand Over Hand by Alma Fullerton, illustrated by Renné Benoit (Second Story).** When Nina asks her grandfather to take her fishing with him on his old banca boat, his answer is always the same: “A boat is not the place for a girl.” But Nina is determined to go. She knows that if her lolo will show her how to jig the lines, to set the hook, and to pull in a fish, hand over hand, she can prove to everyone in their Filipino fishing village that she deserves her turn in the boat, girl or no!
 * **Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, illustrated by Kerascoet (Little, Brown BFYR).** As a child in Pakistan, Malala made a wish for a magic pencil. She would use it to make everyone happy, to erase the smell of garbage from her city, to sleep an extra hour in the morning. But as she grew older, Malala saw that there were more important things to wish for. She saw a world that needed fixing. And even if she never found a magic pencil, Malala realized that she could still work hard every day to make her wishes come true.
 * **Noteworthy by Riley Redgate (Abrams/Amulet).** It’s the start of Jordan Sun’s junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts. Unfortunately, she’s an Alto 2, which—in the musical theatre world—is sort of like being a vulture in the wild: She has a spot in the ecosystem, but nobody’s falling over themselves to express their appreciation. So it’s no surprise when she gets shut out of the fall musical for the third year straight. But then the school gets a mass email: A spot has opened up in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s elite a cappella octet. Worshiped . . . revered . . . all male. Desperate to prove herself, Jordan auditions in her most convincing drag, and it turns out that Jordan Sun, Tenor 1, is exactly what the Sharps are looking for.
 * **#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (Annick).** Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous girls and women across North America resound in this book. An eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, intergenerational trauma, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women demanding change and realizing their dreams. Sometimes outraged, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have had their history hidden and whose modern lives have been virtually invisible.
 * **The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg (Little, Brown).** A beautifully illustrated tapestry of folk tales and myths about the secret legacy of female storytellers in an imagined medieval world. In the Empire of Migdal Bavel, Cherry is married to Jerome, a wicked man who makes a diabolical wager with his friend Manfred: if Manfred can seduce Cherry in one hundred nights, he can have his castle–and Cherry. But what Jerome doesn’t know is that Cherry is in love with her maid Hero. The two women hatch a plan: Hero, a member of the League of Secret Story Tellers, will distract Manfred by regaling him with a mesmerizing tale each night for 100 nights, keeping him at bay.
 * **Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson (Bloomsbury).** Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference.
 * **Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali (S&S/Salaam Reads).** There are three kinds of people in my world: 1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose. 2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad. Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds. But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right? 3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories. Like the monster at my mosque. People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask. Except me.
 * **Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky).** At 9 years old, Eugenie Clark developed an unexpected passion for sharks after a visit to the Battery Park Aquarium in New York City. At the time, sharks were seen as mindless killing machines, but Eugenie knew better and set out to prove it. Despite many obstacles in her path, Eugenie was able to study the creatures she loved so much. From her many discoveries to the shark-related myths she dispelled, Eugenie's wide scientific contributions led to the well-earned nickname "Shark Lady."