Never Too Young by Aileen Weintraub, illus. by Laura Horton

Never Too Young: 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference by Aileen Weintraub is a book of mini-bios of kids who either showed brilliance at a skill or went above and beyond to make life better for people while still young. Some of them still are not all that old, some are stories of historical characters who have come and gone.

I've reviewed some similar books of mini bios about adults but I believe this is the first one I've read that's specifically about how natural talent, hard work, and skill manifested early. There's quite a variety and both familiar names and more obscure youngsters are covered. Amongst those who are familiar, a few are:

• Pablo Picasso, who finished his first painting, Le Picador, at the age of 9;
• Venus and Serena Williams, who started playing tennis when they were just 3 and 4 years old;
• Joan of Arc, who was allegedly told she would lead the French to victory over the English by an angel and decided to fulfill her destiny at the age of 16;
• Stevie Wonder, who began playing piano and drums at the age of 9 and whose neighbors loved to hear his singing by the time he was 10; 
• Bobby Fischer, who became obsessed with chess at the age of 6 and became the youngest US Junior Chess Champion ever at the age of 13.

Although they're familiar to the adults in the room, some of those names may not be known to youngsters and I didn't know a few of them were child prodigies. I merely knew them as successful adults.

I love the fact that author Aileen Weintraub didn't stick to just those who are well-known, though. Some of those I'd never heard of:

• Yash Gupta - who created a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes used eyeglasses to students in need;
• Akrit Jaswal - a child prodigy who was performing surgery by the age of 7 and enrolled in college by eleven;
• Marley Dias - who collected books about black girls and started a black girls book club after feeling disappointment that so many books were about white boys and their experiences; 
• Autumn de Forest - Still young, Autumn's paintings were selling for thousands of dollars by the time she was 7 years old; 
• Katie Stagliano - who donated a 40-pound cabbage to a soup kitchen and came up with the idea to plant gardens across the country and donate the harvests to the feeding of hungry people. 

Highly recommended - Great for school libraries and any youngster who likes to read inspiring stories about children who have done big things, Never Too Young would also make a great reference for classrooms to use as a starting point for class projects or reports.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Wonder Women by Sam Maggs

[Emma Edmonds] knew she deserved a military pension, but she also knew it would be difficult to convince the government she truly had fought in the war (even though it's probable that nearly four hundred women were active in the Civil War). So she did the most dramatic thing possible: at a reunion of her Michigan Infantry division, she showed up in full skirts and was like, "Hey guys, it's me, Franklin!" Everyone was utterly confused until her colonel admitted, "I recall many things which ought to have betrayed her, except that no one thought of finding a woman in a soldier's dress."

~ fr. p. 112 of Wonder Women, Advance Reader Copy (some changes may have been made to the final print version)


Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs is packed full of mini biographies of women for whom the term "kick-ass" is maybe a little mild. Going back as far as hundreds of years, author Sam Maggs tells stories of women with amazing skills and talents who refused to hide their abilities or let them die away for the sake of the menfolk.

Told in a breezy, modern style, Wonder Women describes the challenges each of these amazing women faced and how and why most of these historical powerhouses have fallen into obscurity. The short reason: men like taking credit, if not outright stealing, the work of people they consider inferior.

Each small chapter opens with an illustration and a quotation. The opening chapter, for example, describes Wang Zhenyi, a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, and poet who was active in the 18th century. Her quote:

"It's made to believe Women are same as Men; are you not convinced Daughters can also be heroic?"

The contents are divided into the following sections:

• Women of Science
• Women of Medicine
• Women of Espionage
• Women of Innovation
• Women of Adventure

At the end of each of these sections is a Q & A with a living woman who has experienced or is currently working in a male-dominated field:

• Dr. Lynn Conway - Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer, and Science Educator
• Dr. Buddhini Samarasinghe - Molecular Biologist, Cancer Researcher and Founder of STEM Women
• Lindsay Moran - Author, Journalist, and Former CIA Operative (I reviewed her book: Blowing My Cover)
• Erica Baker - Engineer
• Mika McKinnon - Field Geophysicist, Disaster Researcher, and Science Writer

Highly recommended - Wonder Women is the kind of book that ought to be required reading for both sexes -- girls, so they know they can do whatever they choose if they're willing to put out the effort, boys so they don't go around thinking girls are inferior. I don't know the age range -- although, admittedly, I'm actually skeptical of age ranges, anyway, knowing that some children are into adult novels and nonfiction well before adulthood -- but I know I would have enjoyed it around the age of 10-12 and I wouldn't limit it to pre-high schoolers. The writing style is very modern. Sometimes that bothered me (particularly when the author said "skillz" rather than spelling the word "skills" properly) but I do think that style makes Wonder Women particularly accessible to the younger crowd and that is, of course, its intended audience.

Quirk Books is having a pre-order promotion. Included in the offer is a set of wallpapers for phone, tablet, and desktop (free with purchase) and a drawing for signed, framed prints. Click through this link to read about it and find the sign-up widget:

Pre-Order Offer: Wonder Women by Sam Maggs

The Quirk Books website is an awfully fun place to hang out, by the way. I highly recommend bookmarking it for future fun.

©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.