Revolutionary Women: A Book Of Stencils by Queen of the Neighborhood (2010, PM Press; 128 pages) This is a gorgeous book of short biographies and striking stencil images of thirty women's heroes: activists, anarchists, feminists, freedom-fighters, and visionaries. The reader can find a well of inspiration from this celebration of surbversive portraits celebrating strong women from all over the world. From Harriet Tubman, Emma Goldman, and Angela Davis, to Vandana Shiva, Sylvia Rivera, and Lucia Sanchez Saornil. From Qiu Jin to Comandante Ramona or Malalai Joya, the book offers a complete radical way to bring history to the hands of readers. A sampling of quotes from key writings and speeches gives voice to each woman's ideologies, struggles, ideas, philosophies and humanity. The stencils are a jewel, a creative and powerful way to bring the likeness of these women into the book. Queen of the Neighborhood is an all-women collective of writers, researchers, editors, and graphic designers originally hailing from Aotearoa/New Zealand. They are Tui Gordon, Hoyden, Melissa Steiner, Anna Kelliher, Rachel Bell, Anna-Claire Hunter, and Janet McAllister. Taking seed from the original zine, Revolutionary Women Stencil Book, the collective sprouted up from fans and friends who spent the next two years distilling their feminist passion into that book. I'd recommend this book to readers who are looking for inspiration in strong women of our present and past, those looking for information of strong women from different parts of the globe, and those interested in the art of stencils. Find this title in our catalog: Revolutionary Women: A Book Of Stencils Recommended by: Maite
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Library of Luminaries: Virginia Woolf: An Illustrated Biography by Zena Alkayat and Nina Cosford (2016, Chronicle) Imagine a short but complete biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and creative thinkers, Virginia Woolf, a book filled with beautiful watercolors illustrating the handwritten words that celebrate her life. This is that book, an extraordinary beautiful piece of art and literature that we can enjoy thanks to Chronicle Books. The book belongs to the Library of Luminaries series, a collection of books about luminaries in history in relatively short but always beautifully illustrated volumes offered in an appealing, medium-sized square hardback format that brings a different point of view to the book. You won't find dense text in it, but you will be able to take your time to delight in information about Virginia's family tree, for example, quotes from her letters and diaries, or information about her group of friends, the Bloomsbury group she helped form. The illustrated biography also features little details like her nickname for her husband, or about how slowly her first novel sold, information about what she kept on her desk, and portions of the note she left her husband before she ended her own life. This book is a treasure for everyone, and especially for those who love Virginia Woolf, biographies, woman’s history and beautiful watercolors. Read it! Find this title in our catalog: This book is being catalogued Recommended by: Maite Olga And The Smelly Thing From Nowhere by Elise Gravel (2017, HarperCollins; 176 pages) This advance copy got in my hands a few weeks ago and as soon as I opened the book I fell in love with Olga. Olga adores animals, and doesn't adore people so much. She loves to take notes on life around her, and she is going to give the reader the opportunity to peer into her “observation notebook.” She will introduce us to Rita, her best friend, a spider who lives under the bathroom sink, and she will share with us why her arch enemies are two neighbors named Farla and Shalala whose lives are very different from hers. As a matter of fact, Olga's life will change her usual routines when she discovers an odd, smelly creature that looks “like a cross between an inflated hamster and a potato drawn by a three-year-old.” She, of course, adopts the creature, a creature whose only word is “meh,” and that's how she will be named. From that point on, Olga gets her scientist-in-training mindset on and starts with writing down daily observations about “the thing.” Meh is scared of bananas, and Olga can't figure it out what she likes to eat...The adventures begin. This is a fantastic chapter book on a cartooning shape, with lots of red and white and black in it. Readers 8 to 12 and adults like myself will roar with laughter at Olga and Meh's adventures, and probably will understand Olga's misanthropic humor, and cherish the fact that her attitude and thoughts about human beings softens by the end of the book. A treasure, read it. Find this title in our catalog: This book has not yet been released Recommended by: Maite Two White Rabbits by Jairo Buitrago and Rafael Yockteng (illustrator) (2015, Groundwood Books; 32 pages) A little girl is traveling with her father, and she doesn’t know where they are going. She entertains herself counting the animals by the road, the stars and clouds in the sky. Along the way, sometimes she sees soldiers, and there are scary times when they are forced to stop because her father needs to earn more money before they can continue their journey. She also meets a friend who gives her a beautiful present. This is an extraordinary story with incredibly powerful and realistic illustrations that recreate the story of one of the many thousands of migrants that travel north from Central America and Mexico to reach the U.S. border. The book is powerful and a fantastic example of the power of showing a reality, rather than telling it. We don’t really know why the father and daughter in the book are leaving their home and the world they love and know to go to a different country. We can try to guess, but we are not told. We do know about the millions of people around the world becoming refugees every year. The book offers a little bit of information about this reality at the end of the story, information brought by Patricia Aldana, President of the IBBY Foundation. In North America, close to a hundred thousand children from Central America have made the very dangerous trip the story tells to try to find safety and a way to survive in the United States. Coyotes, people whom they pay to “help” them make the trip, often betray and abandon them. And when they finally make it to the border, they might be turned back or arrested. Aldana leaves us with a question: “What do those of us who have safe comfortable lives owe to people who do not?” Jairo Buitrago and Rafael Yockteng bring us a fantastic book about refugees and/or migrants. Recommended for all ages. Find this title in our catalog: Two White Rabbits Recommended by: Maite |