Cool Women: The Reference

by Naomi Wax and Dawn Chipman

Book Overview

Featuring images from real life, fiction, and pop culture, "Cool Women" is the thinking girl's guide to the hippest ladies in history. The mix of profiles is eclectic and creative enough to capture... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965975401
• ISBN13: 9780965975407
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Girl Press
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 9.5" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

For the teachers...

This book contains both fictional and non-fiction women through out history. It would be a great starting point for the development of biographical feature articles or biographical reports. The text is set on different colors and chunked for easy reading (helpful for lower level readers). The women featured in this book are extremely diverse so that any girl can find someone who looks like her to relate to within the text. Each entry also has information for girls to find out more about the cool woman they are reading about.

Excellent material for growing strong women.

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for the youngest daughter of a friend of the family. I was looking for something I knew her mother would never buy her, something that would make her learn about women as unique and wonderful human creatures. I stumbled across this book and was attracted to its magazine-style layout, with photos and blurbs in sidebars as well as a main, brief narrative on each of the diverse women profiled. It drew me in immediately - in fact before I wrapped it, I had read it myself! It also offers, in the sidebars, ways for girls to start imagining themselves in roles like those of the women written about, but without that cheesy condescending tone of voice that so many educational books written by adults for kids take.The book offers women throughout history, many of whom may not be known to adults (!), who achieved much on their own. Artists, politicians, soldiers, writers, inventors and businesswomen all are represented. The text avoids serious revolutionaries, which is, I think, age-appropriate. The book is targeted for girls and boys ages 12-14, and it fits well within those age groups, using colorful layout and a conversational tone to talk about these "cool women."This isn't the text to choose for your burdgeoning Socialist, as many of the women celebrated within its pages are female entrepreneurs and monarchs (all, arguably, quite rightly chosen by the editors). However, many of the stories also chronicle women who rise from adversity, giving it a real sense of balance. One might also argue that there is a smattering of racial and ethnic tokenism at work, but I choose to view it as merely an attempt to speak of at least one woman from each group as promotion of multiculturalism (of depth) rather than tokenism (for appearances only).All in all, this book is an excellent tool for teaching young women about the valuable contributions their sisters before them made, and what they too can hope to accomplish. Highly recommended.

Much Needed

This book bridges the gap in educational books for young readers. It helps young girls specifically to understand that women have been achievers throughout history and in doing so can serve as inspiration for modern young women who may be short on confidence or direction. This book is a "must" for the 12-18 year age group, and adults like myself will also find it interesting and educational.

Cool account of womyn throughout history

Very interesting with cool facts about womyn (he he). Not a whole lot of info about individual people, but still fun, facinating, and nicly designed. I highly recommend it to anyone (mostly but not limited to, girls) at basically any age. Makes a great present to a 8-14 year old girl (I should know:) ).

Excellent, not Encyclopedia!

This book is an excellent light hearted resource for girls and women alike. It exposes the reader to a nice well rounded look at some interesting female figures in the past. The extent of information given is a bit limited but opens the door for further exploration into strong women.