Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women by Louise Kay Stewart and Eve Lloyd Knight
| Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women by Louise Kay Stewart and Eve Lloyd Knight | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Beautifully illustrated summary of the history of women's suffrage around the world. Would make a fabulous gift and should be in every school library. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 48 | Date: January 2018 |
| Publisher: Wren and Rook | |
| ISBN: 1526300230 | |
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Rule breakers. Risk takers. Rebel women. Law makers. A celebration of women rallying around the globe to win the vote.
Let's just get straight to it. I loved Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women . And I can't let a review pass without a brief note on the fabulous production values. The cover is stunning and deeply impactful as you can see. It has that lovely, bookish smell. The paper is thick and heavy. Everything about it tells you that this is a book with interesting and important information. It simply begs to be picked up and read. Full marks to Wren and Rook for this investment.
The text follows the history of women's suffrage around the world, starting with New Zealand in 1893 and ending with Saudi Arabia in 2015. Louise Kay Stewart provides a brief history of the passage of women's suffrage in each country and also highlights snippets of fascinating information about the various struggles and their leaders. Did you know that it was never illegal for women to vote in Ecuador and it was social pressure that prevented them? Or that women's suffrage passed in Switzerland because of a referendum - in which, ironically, only men could vote? Or that Chinese women stormed their own parliament? Stewart doesn't shy away from the sometimes uncomfortable aspect of women's activism either - while Maori women in New Zealand were enfranchised at the same time as white women, it took 60 years after Australian white women won the vote for Aboriginal women to be granted the same. To have distilled so much into such punchy and inspirational text is quite the achievement.
Eve Lloyd Wright's illustrations are perfect. Eve has worked in this area before - providing work for the campaign by Bite the Ballot that helped mobilise such a huge number of young people in the general election in June 2017. Here, she has provided big, ambitious double page spreads that are evocative and powerful, perfectly representing the women activists featured in the book, whose struggles were often perilous and seemingly impossible. I loved the image of Briet Bjarnhedinsdottir on horseback at night against a background of snow and trees, as she rode to spread her crusade for suffrage. And that of Eva Peron, lying among the flowers finding peace at last, after a lifetime of fighting for women's rights. I could pore over and think about these beautiful images for hours.
Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women is a beautifully illustrated summary of the history of women's suffrage around the world. It's sifted through the details of women's struggles and picked out some of the most arresting, impactful examples of heroism and dedication. It's wonderful. It would make a fabulous gift for any girl you know and a copy should be in every school library.
A fabulous companion book would be Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky, a beautifully illustrated set of mini biographies about women scientists from early history right up to the modern day. Opal Plumstead by Jacqueline Wilson is an engaging story about a fiercely intelligent girl in Edwardian England who gets involved with the suffragette movement.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women by Louise Kay Stewart and Eve Lloyd Knight at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Rebel Voices: The Rise of Votes for Women by Louise Kay Stewart and Eve Lloyd Knight at Amazon.com.
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