Little Dreamers - MXHDR BookWyrm

No cover — Vashti Harrison: Little Dreamers (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

96 pages

English language

Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-47517-4

(1 review)

Featuring the true stories of 35 women creators, ranging from writers to inventors, artists to scientists, Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World inspires as it educates. Readers will meet trailblazing women like Mary Blair, an American modernist painter who had a major influence on how color was used in early animated films, actor/inventor Hedy Lamarr, environmental activist Wangari Maathai, architect Zaha Hadid, filmmaker Maya Deren, and physicist Chien-Shiung Wu. Some names are known, some are not, but all of the women had a lasting effect on the fields they worked in.

1 edition

nerd teacher [books] reviewed Little Dreamers by Vashti Harrison

Great Man Theory for Little Girls

1 star

I hated this book from the introduction, and I hate how much of it glosses over the shared work of other people. This is a persistent theme, especially from books for kids that are developed for the US market. Individualism reigns supreme, to the point where we get New Great Person Theory instead of genuine feminism. It's so annoying.

This is even true of Marie Curie's (very short) story, which glosses over the fact that her husband did fight for her recognition. This is something that is directly contradictory to many women in science during and after the Industrial Revolution, like Mileva Einstein-Marie (who was just as brilliant as Albert... but he never ensured her work was acknowledged). This doesn't even negate the feminist slant the book pretends to have; it very literally would highlight that part of the reason we know about Marie Curie's contributions is because someone else …

I hated this book from the introduction, and I hate how much of it glosses over the shared work of other people. This is a persistent theme, especially from books for kids that are developed for the US market. Individualism reigns supreme, to the point where we get New Great Person Theory instead of genuine feminism. It's so annoying.

This is even true of Marie Curie's (very short) story, which glosses over the fact that her husband did fight for her recognition. This is something that is directly contradictory to many women in science during and after the Industrial Revolution, like Mileva Einstein-Marie (who was just as brilliant as Albert... but he never ensured her work was acknowledged). This doesn't even negate the feminist slant the book pretends to have; it very literally would highlight that part of the reason we know about Marie Curie's contributions is because someone else saw and fought that injustice with her (and that person was, surprisingly, her own husband).

Others that get factors glossed over include people like Peggy Guggenheim. It's mentioned that she was born into a wealthy and known family, but it's also written in a way that makes it sound like she would've had the same uphill struggle that others would've had. It's also very strange because her contribution is "saving artwork from the Nazis" because she had a lot of money, though the book doesn't even really do much beyond say that they "disliked anything representing modern sensibilities." It's like there's a reason why... that gets skimmed over.

Another thing is that this says "from around the world," but it's worth pointing out that many of the stories are either about people from the US or people who immigrated to the US. Like, it's noticeable to a fault (out of 35 total stories, half of them involve someone who matches that description), which feels like an implication that many of these people need to immigrate to the US to be successful. The same is true in the "more dreamers" who don't get full-page stories (just tiny blurbs).