Three cheers for women! by Marcia Williams

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Walker Books, 2017. ISBN 9781406374865
(Age: 7+) Highly recommended. Themes: Women. Marcia Williams returns with her signature comic-strip style in Three cheers for women! which celebrates over 70 women who have made a great contribution in all walks of life throughout history. The front end papers grab the eye with a multitude of banners featuring the areas that women have excelled in: leaders, inventors, discoverers, thinkers, authors, environmentalist, doctors, campaigners to name just a few. Of the women featured some are very well known and some less famous, but all have led interesting and inspirational lives. The women featured with their own double page spread are Cleopatra, Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Wangari Maathai, Mae C. Jemison, Cathy Freeman and Malala. Then there is a section for Leaders and World-changers, with brief biographical information about women like Edith Cowan, Australian politician and social campaigner and Sheryl Sandberg, American executive, activist and author. Readers will learn much about their lives and will be inspired to follow up and do research on them. Another double page spread looks at Sportswomen and Creatives and readers will have fun finding names they know (JK Rowling, Beatrix Potter) as well as ones they probably haven't heard of (Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-British architect, and Paula Rego, Portuguese artist). Hooray for Scientists, Pioneers and Adventurers features Dame Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse, Rachel Carson, conservationist, among many others.
There is a Dear Reader letter at the end from Williams that states that the women in the book have reminded her "that, whether you are a boy or a girl, you are never too young to too old to do something world changing!" A clear index concludes the book.
The facts, quotes and great cartoon style will grab the reader's attention and the achievements of the women will remain in the mind as a reminder of what these individuals have achieved. This is highly recommended for any library or classroom.
Pat Pledger

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