She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History

Clinton expands the reach of her bestselling picture book She Persisted, highlighting 13 women who have made history internationally. Her subjects include familiar contemporary figures J.K. Rowling and Malala Yousafzai, and others less widely recognizable: astronomer Caroline Herschel; suffragist and activist for indigenous Maori women, Kate Sheppard; and Viola Desmond, who refused to leave the whites-only section of a Canadian movie theater in 1946. Clinton again writes in a measured tone that is at once celebratory and defiant. Boiger's watercolor and ink artwork exudes warmth and subtle power, each spread carefully integrating colors and thematic elements germane to the subjects: Rowling's page features a dusky purple castle and a white owl in flight, while soccer player Sisleide Lima do Amor is surrounded by the colors of the Brazilian flag. Two brown-skinned children and a white child in a wheelchair bookend the story in an opening illustration, which shows them visiting a grand library, and again on a final spread. Clinton puts opportunity and responsibility in readers' hands: "So, speak up, rise up, dream big. These women did that and more. They persisted and so should you." Ages 4-8. (Mar.)