Common Sense Media Review
By Jan Carr
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Lively, bite-size bios of fearless females.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
WOMEN WHO DARED: 52 FEARLESS DAREDEVILS, ADVENTURERS, AND REBELS profiles 52 brave and daring women who might otherwise fly under the radar. A few names may be familiar, for instance documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White and Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown, aka the Unsinkable Molly Brown of Titanic fame, but most will be new to readers. There's Emma "Grandma" Gates, who hiked the Appalachian Trial at age 67, and Johanna July, a Black Seminole woman born in Mexico who tamed wild horses in the late 1800s. All the women profiled fearlessly followed their interests, ones that were unusual in their time and circumstances.
Is It Any Good?
There's something very fresh and refreshing about this compilation of bios of daring women, most of whom aren't famous, but are "ordinary" women who did extraordinary things. The profiles in Women Who Dared: 52 Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels span time, place, and race, though a lot are from the United States. Author Linda Skeers includes African-Americans, Native Americans of different Nations (Wyandot, Blackfeet, Omaha, Black Seminole), Latinas, an Iraqi librarian, and a Japanese martial artist. Skeers' prose is crisp, clean, easy to follow, and lively, always offering up the engaging detail. When lighthouse keeper Ida Lewis had to take over the lighthouse duties when her father died, she had to quit school but still "rowed her young siblings to school, and picked them up and rowed them home every day." Bessie Stringfield, "Motorcycle Queen of Miami," took "penny tours," in which she'd "flip a penny onto a map, and that's where she'd go!"
Each profile has a full-page facing illustration, which helps readers identify at a glance each woman's race, time period, and the gist of her accomplishments. The message is clear: Don't hold back! Do what you love and have fun doing it! Because the book's jam-packed with bite-size bios, it's probably best consumed in small sittings, a few at a time. Girls might keep it on their night tables or in their backpacks to pull out and enjoy.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about all the various women profiled in Women Who Dared: 52 Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels. Which ones interest you most, did you most identify with? Why?
Are there things you'd like to do that feel daring, adventurous, or rebellious? Have you ever held yourself back? Let yourself go?
What famous women do you know of who could have been profiled in the book? Why do you think the author chose lesser-known women to profile?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Livi Gosling
- Genre : Biography
- Topics : Adventures , History
- Book type : Non-Fiction
- Publisher : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
- Publication date : September 5, 2017
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 14
- Number of pages : 128
- Available on : Hardback
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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