Stand Up!: 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change

K-Gr 3--This empowering picture book explains that "Standing up is a powerful thing." Readers are reminded that when they first learned to stand, their view of the world changed. Standing up for what one believes can also be a shift in perspective and can take many forms. Some, like Claudette Colvin, stood up for their beliefs by sitting down. Phillis Wheatley stood up by picking up her pen. All ten of the Black women and girls in this book chose to speak out, act on their convictions, and resist the pressure to sit down and be quiet in the face of what they saw to be unjust. Mixed-media illustrations capture the spirit of each iconic heroine and include historically accurate clothing and hairstyles. The background colors used when the young girl being addressed is shown are particularly energetic oranges and pinks. One vivid image shows that young girl with all ten figures gathered behind her to emphasize the statement, "When you stand up for what you believe, you don't stand alone." Cooper explains in an author's note that Rosa Parks was her inspiration as a child and that she wants to help young Black girls learn to shine. This book could be a gift book to young girls, or used as a read-aloud to kick off a study of strong Black women throughout history. VERDICT Vibrantly illustrated and featuring a variety of justice-seekers, this book belongs in every library and classroom.--Suzanne Costner

Praise for Brittney Cooper

Brittney Cooper is a national treasure. Eloquent Rage is as exhilarating as it is vulnerable, a crucial book that tackles friendship and feminism, Hillary Clinton and Sandra Bland, violence and family, sex and faith and race and gender, all with vibrant grace and honesty. Cooper is a generous writer, affording even those she rages against good humored compassion, but never letting any of us fully off the hook. This book is just so good. — Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author

[Eloquent Rage] is distinct both for its telling as the author's own journey and for its―yes―eloquent personal voice, which, between her erudition and her command of vernacular, is funny, wrenching, pithy, and pointed. — Rebecca Solnit, The New Republic

A dissertation on black women's pain and possibility; an autobiography of a black woman's complicated dance with feminism, overcoming otherness as a big black girl in a skinny-white-girl world, her mother's triumph over violence, and her own journey from disappointment to black joy. — Joy Reid, Cosmopolitan