By Piranha T.

The newspaper industry in the 1800s wasn’t fair. Most editors declared that it was too rough a pursuit for women, and relegated the few female reporters to writing about recent social events and the hair styles of celebrities. Only a few women managed to land in-depth reporting jobs, or a regular column in a newspaper or magazine. Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were two of those women.

Pennsylvania-born Nellie Bly wrote her first articles for a smaller newspaper which allowed her to write investigative articles about the poor, working conditions, and other subjects which most editors found unfit for women. When she went to New York City, she managed to land a job at the World newspaper, where she wrote regular articles which displayed little-known facts about a variety of things to the public which she learned by going undercover throughout the city.

Elizabeth Bisland, born in the south, known for her beauty as well as her writing skills, also found a job in New York after writing for other publications for several years: writing a regular column about recent books for the magazine The Cosmopolitan.

In 1889, to boost declining sales, the World sends Nellie Bly to race around the world. Her goal is to beat the fictional record established in Jules Verne’s book Around the World in Eighty Days. But only hours after she leaves, the editor of The Cosmopolitan sends Elizabeth Bisland around the world the other way. These two pioneering female journalists set a record against time, fiction, and each other.
​
80 Days was a very interesting book. Set near the turn of the 19th century, this is a fast-paced historical nonfiction book about two very real, very skilled women pioneering in the world of journalism in a race which fascinated not just the nation, but the world. In addition to narrating the journeys of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, Matthew Goodman provides interesting information about other subjects in the world at the same time, such as conditions of immigrants and the influence of the telegraph. And in the narrations of their journeys, readers learn interesting facts about the world and culture in the nineteenth century. It does not, however, feel as though information is being forced into the text—instead, it flowed naturally and enhanced the text rather than making it dry. Although 80 Days was written for older audiences, I found it to be very interesting, and recommend it to readers twelve and up, especially those who like history and geography. 

By Super Kitty

Have you ever heard of Maryam Mirzakhani? How about Chien-Shiung Wu? Or Mae Jemison? In Women in Science, Rachel Ignotofsky writes about fifty amazing women from around the world who made vital contributions to the world of science. Full of quotes, fun facts, and colorful illustrations, each page focuses on a different scientist’s life and achievements.

Interesting and inspiring, this book makes even the most abstract fields of science feel accessible—it’s almost guaranteed to get you researching more about the amazing people it celebrates! In many ways it’s reminiscent of Rad Girls Can, with its engaging, illustrated biographies of groundbreaking women and focus on encouraging girls to pursue their passions. (Though boys are sure to enjoy it as well!)

Many of the women featured in Women in Science have been largely forgotten, or in some cases were never properly recognized in the first place, and learning about them gives a different perspective on history—behind many incredible discoveries there are unsung sheroes who never received the credit they deserve. The movement to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers has led to the publication of many awesome books celebrating those little-known scientists. Women in Science is definitely a top pick.

By Super Kitty
 
In Fly Girls, P. O’Connell Pearson tells the forgotten story of the women pilots who worked for the military during World War II. In the United States, planes were being produced at an incredible rate, and the army needed them—and fast.

To allow as many pilots as possible to fly in combat, two accomplished pilots named Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love proposed a program where female aviators could fly planes from factories to bases. Woman were taking on what were traditionally men’s jobs all over the country, but if a woman wanted to work directly for the military, only specific roles were open. While not all of them consisted of traditionally ‘feminine’ work, many people thought women flying combat planes, particularly the heavy bombers, was going too far.

But women were not afraid to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), despite the hard conditions and difficult standards (often much higher than those required of male pilots), and one thousand, one hundred and two of them flew for their country until the program was shut down in 1944.
​
Fly Girls tells a fascinating story, and one I can’t believe I didn’t know about. More than eleven hundred women worked ferrying planes from 1942 to 1944, and yet this is a piece of history largely forgotten. It also gave me a different perspective on World War II and the suffragettes; how far we have come since then, but also how far we have to go before women will have complete equality with men. The writing is engaging, and it reads like a story, which I for one quite appreciated, as many similar books tend to be on the drier side. I was impressed by the amazing women the story centered around—now forgotten, many battles might have ended differently were it not for the young pilots who risked their lives flying for their country. I would recommend it to readers ages ten and up looking for interesting and inspiring history, about war, planes, and the women who flew them.    

By Super Kitty
 
Malala Yousafzai. Yusra Mardini. Madison Kimrey. All over the world, girls are making headlines, whether they’re breaking records, giving speeches, or fighting for social justice. Some have become celebrities, while others have worked against inequality in their own communities. And of course, there are those who are now grown up, but changed the course of history when they were girls.
​
Rad Girls Can celebrates the accomplishments of almost fifty amazing young women, all under the age of twenty, who have in some way changed the world for the better. I’m always looking for books like this one, and it has become one of my favorites. Fun, empowering, and inspiring, not to mention beautifully illustrated, I would highly recommend it—especially to girls, but really to any readers who love learning about the incredible things kids can do. As Marley Dias, founder of the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, says: “You don’t have to be very old to start trying to fix the problems you see in the world around you.”