Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs – Review

Title: Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History

Author: Sam Maggs

Illustrator: Sophia Foster-Dimino

Publisher: Quirk Books

Publication date: October 4, 2016

Price: (Hardcover) 19.57$ CAN at Indigo Books and Music Online 

I LOVE a good read about feminism. I saw this book on a shelf by the YA section at my local public library and was immediately intrigued. So I had to take it out, and I must say, I really don’t regret it.

I don’t really read much informal/non-fiction stuff. But I think I should make room for an occasional educational read since I really enjoyed Wonder Women!

Short Description

Smart women have always been able to achieve amazing things, even when the odds were stacked against them. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs tells the stories of the brilliant, brainy, and totally rad women in history who broke barriers as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors. Plus, interviews with real-life women in STEM careers, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to women-centric science and technology organizations—all to show the many ways the geeky girls of today can help to build the future.

-Quirk Books

Review

I really like how this book was illustrated and written. Maggs really made me feel what it was like for those women, how hard they had to fight for their work, and sometimes (I’m still upset about this) they did not get any credit for their work. Reading  Wonder Women really changed my perspective of the past and even of today.

Just the physical format of this book screamed awesome, the drawings made by Sophia Foster-Dimino really gave me this feminism vibe. (If that’s a thing) She made the portraits of every woman look strong and powerful but still while wearing a big dress, it really inspired me. I remember seing old pictures of women in the “olden days” looking all poised and composed but these girls were poised and composed AND looking super badass all at the same time! Other than the illustrations, I really loved how the chapters were divided by topic, (my fav was the women of espionnage and medicine!) I just thought it was well planned. The small details and vibrant colours added on the pages of this book were not only really cute but super duper awesome!

Writing-wise, I love the modern twist with slang and abbreviations that Maggs used. I like how quirky and fun she makes everything sound, It kept me so much more concentrated and I did not feel like I was reading a history paper!

“History is full of lady engineers and spies and scientists. But history is also written by the victorious, and it may not surprise you that thus far the overwhelming winners have been straight white dudes. That hasn’t worked out so well for everyone else.”-Sam Maggs

Final Thoughts/ Recommendation

Im giving Wonder Women four stars. It was super empowering and motivational and I adored learning about so many cool gals! (My favs were probably the Blackwell sisters because not only girl power but also sista powa!!!!) Not giving a five because it was interesting but I think I started to get a bit sidetracked at the end because I was missing fiction so much! 🙂

I would recommend this book to… literally anyone. I’d recommend this book for feminists, people who like to read about “history related stuff” (I know I like to!) or even to someone who underestimates my intelligence and skills because I am a woman. (I can’t believe this crap still happens, seriously guys it’s 2018?! This is a talk for another blog though.) Recommending this book would be like “HA you think im not smart or deserve respect? Well that’s what others thought of Alice Ball and look at what she’s done!” Anyway super fun read and i’m super happy I picked it up, and remember ladies, don’t let NO man tell you what you can’t do!

Let me know what you thought of the book/ my review. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Have a great day everybody!♥