“Every choice we make can be a celebration of the world we want.” — Francis Moore Lappé
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” — Mae Jemison
“There’s a moment when you have to choose whether to be silent or to stand up.” — Malala Yousafzai
Our world wouldn’t be what it is today without these 14 women who did extraordinary things at a young age, like Maya Lin who won a competition for her design of the Vietnam Memorial but who had to defend her vision before Congress due to her young age, gender and ethnicity. Pura Belpré was the first Latina librarian to work in the New York Public Library and the first to reach out to Spanish-speaking communities. When she saw a great need for children’s books in Spanish, she wrote them herself— many books. Her Perez y Martina was the first Spanish book for children put out in mainstream publishing. She also translated many children’s books into Spanish.
Susan Hood’s poetic biographies of these revolutionary women are accompanied by portraits, each illustrated by a different female artist — making it a categorically unique, inspiring and powerful book. Included are a timeline, a moving author’s note and an abundance of resources for further reading.
Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World was written by Susan Hood and illustrated by Shadra Strickland, Hadley Hooper, Lisa Brown, Emily Winfield Martin, Sara Palacios, Erin K. Robinson, Sophie Blackall, Melissa Sweet, Oge Mora, Isabel Roxas, Julie Morstad , LeUyen Pham and Selina Alko. Published by HarperCollins.