'Wow! Don't mistake this for another book that looks at women in history. In final spreads, Degman invites readers to be curious, ask questions, ‘and discover the ways.'' Penny works in stylized collages that distinctively capture the likenesses of the women, who encompass people of varying backgrounds and abilities.

Degman repeats the title in the context of each figure’s accomplishments: ‘Change the world like a girl, from the land to the sea,’ she writes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who appears planting trees. Degman includes Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman as well as lesser-known figures, among them Bessie Coleman, the first Native and African-American female pilot Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel and architect Zaha Hadid. “Degman overturns the negative connotations associated with the phrase ‘like a girl’ by highlighting the lives and work of iconic female figures.

As an introduction to women's power and possibilities, this choice rises above the rest. Malala Yousafzai raises a fist in the air, holding a ‘Resist’ sign and surrounded by other feminist signs at a protest march the young Ruby Bridges stands facing a crowd with calm dignity, with the text ‘keep on going persist.’ Leaders who overcame challenges, such as Hellen Keller and Tammy Duckworth, ‘prevail like a girl.’ Artists, architects, and writers like Frida Kahlo and Zaha Hadid all ‘create like a girl.’ Pilots and astronauts ‘soar,’ athletes ‘train,’ philanthropists and activists ‘change the world like a girl.’ Minibiographies at the end of the book introduce the major accomplishments of each featured leader, helping this book to double as a fun read-aloud and an informative lead-in to further research. ‘Stand up like a girl, by refusing to stand’-Rosa Parks sits calmly on an (empty) bus, looking out at readers ‘Stand up like a girl, by extending your hand’-Mother Teresa offers a bowl of rice to three children of different races. Each page holds one line of a rhyming couplet with one woman at work in illustrations composed of strong shapes and vivid colors. The endpapers present the multicultural roster of talented, hardworking women and girls, all apparently cis, depicted in grayscale portraits with their names below their pictures. “Twenty-four women leaders are pictured as models of working ‘like a girl’ in this rhyming inspirational poem.

Reading Like A Girl by Rishma Dunlop