Heroes of Black History -- Rosa Parks

Disclosure: Blue Slip Media sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

February is Black History Month! The thing I love about Black History Month is reading a friend's posts on Facebook. He is black and now a vice principal but was a high school history teacher. He shares with his friends a bit about some not so well known Black Americans. I love reading them each year and learning about some amazing people I haven't heard about previously. Today's book shares about the lives of four Black Americans who have made history. These are four well known people, but this book is perfect for an library, classroom or home. It adds so much about these four heroes as well as giving more information about Black History in America. The book is from the Editors of Time for Kids and it is called Heroes of Black History: Biographies of Four Great Americans. 

Hidden Women -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Capstone Publishing sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Have you seen Hidden Figures? It is in Hazel's top three favorite movies of all times. Our family went to see it on Martin Luther King Day last year. Last year I wrote about the real women in the story for Black History Month. And before the movie I had done a post about Katherine Johnson for a previous Black History Month. Needless to say this is a topic near and dear to us. I jumped at the chance to review a new book called Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped Win the Space Race by Rebecca Rissman. 

Ann Cole Lowe and Ada Lovelace -- Learning about Women in History

For our final post this year for Women's History Month I am sharing two books I found at the library. The first book is Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe by Deborah Blumenthal and illustrated by Laura Freeman.

Martina and Chrissie - Book Review for Learning about Women in History

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I like to focus on women from different walks of life each March. So far this month we have shared books on a female scientist at NASA, the first female pilot and First Ladies with a special look at Eleanor Roosevelt. Today we are taking a look at sports. In the past we have looked at women that are figure skaters and professional baseball players in the past. Today we are taking a look at two very famous tennis players. The book is Martina & Chrissie: The Greatest Rivalry in the History of Sports by Phil Bildner and illustrated by Brett Helquist. 

First Ladies and Eleanor Roosevelt -- Women's History Month Series

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This is my official post for Multicultural Kid Blogs' Women's History Month Series although I have already done two posts on women in history already this month (Bethany Ehlmann and Sophie Blanchard) and will be doing more the rest of the month. Today I am sharing a book about many wonderful women in history it is What's the Big Deal about First Ladies by Ruby Shamir and illustrated by Matt Faulkner and I am going to share a bit about one of my favorite first ladies in history, Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Lighter Than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot -- Learning about Women in History Series

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

 Did you hear about the women who made history recently that are in today's news everywhere? Air India had an all female crew fly round the world. Every crew member from the pilots, cabin crews, check-in and ground handling staff were women and Air India says even the engineers who certified the plane and the air traffic controllers who cleared departure and arrival were women. This is a first and they are applying for a spot in the Guinness World Records. (Source) This seems like the perfect time to share this great new book, Lighter Than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot by Matthew Clark Smith and illustrated by Matt Tavares. This book is being released next week, but I am going to share it with you today so you can pre-order it. 

A Little Women's History: Amelia Earhart, Maya Angelou, Coco Chanel, Nell Richardson, & Alice Burke

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Today I am going to share four great books about five amazing women!! We will start with some women suffragists and they are not the ones most think of right away. The book is Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten and 10,000 Miles by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Hadley Hooper. With the upcoming election it seems the perfect time to look at the history of women voting. 

Science Lessons Part 2 -- Back to School Series

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

With September ending tomorrow, our back to school series is also coming to an end. I had originally planned today's post to be split in two, but due to lack of time I am making it a mega science lesson with nine resources!! I split them into two categories: Things that Live (Nature) and Space and then have the lone wolf--a puzzles and riddles book. Be sure to visit our first science lesson of this series.

We will start with that the lone wolf one. It is Professor Murphy's Brain-Busting Puzzles and Riddles. 

The Treasury of Glorious Goddesses: Isis, Athena, and Ixchel -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Last month (and January) I was able to share with you Goosebottom Books' The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Life Princesses Series (you can see them here and here). Today I am going to share the Treasury of Glorious Goddesses with you. These books are chapter books and are written in the goddesses' voice (first person). What is amazing to me is how captivated Hazel was with these stories. She did not know any mythology or at least not much and she asked each night for more chapters of whichever of the three books we were reading. Personally I only knew about Athena and did not remember everything from studying Greek mythology back in school. The other great thing about these books is at the end there is information about the culture the goddess oversees and the time period when she was popular. Things like what people wore, ate and did are given there. It adds a whole other dimension to the history behind the stories.

Anything But Ordinary Addie -- Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you heard of Adelaide Herrmann? She is known as the Queen of Magic but her story was lost until recently. Hazel became very interested in magic after we watched the Houdini DVD back in October. I knew learning about a female magician would spark her interest and it is perfect for Women's History Month. The book however is being released in April. It is Anything But Ordinary Addie: The True Story of Adelaide Hermann Queen of Magic written by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Iocopo Bruno. 

Frida Kahlo -- Women's History Month Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I am sharing with you one of the books that we looked at for Women's History Month. Each year I try to read books about women we have not explored yet. Our first post this year about the Thinking Girls Treasury of Real Princesses shared many new to us women. It was also our official post for the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Women's History Month Series. I also like to expose Hazel to different artists and this book does that. (A few years ago I introduced her to Georgia O'Keeffe for Women's History Month.) I will admit I did not know much about Frida Kahlo before reading this book. The book is Frida Kahlo by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and illustrated by Gee Fan Eng. It is part of the Little People, Big Dreams series. 

Jack and the Baked Beanstalk and The Most Wonderful Thing in the World -- Fairy Tale Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own, and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

There is a lot of talk around about trying to defrill princesses for our daughters. And  a lot of talk about how fairy tales tend to show females as victims who need saving. Well, today I am going to share with you two fairy tales that do NOT do this. The first is a modern spin on a classic. It is called Jack and the Baked Beanstalk and is by Colin Stimpson. 

Katherine Johnson -- Multicultural Math Lesson and Black History Month Blog Hop & Giveaway

*Pictures of Katherine Johnson are from NASA.

This year for Black History Month I could not decide what to focus on for my post. Hazel and I read books about Coretta Scott King (Martin Luther King, Jr.'s wife) and inventor Garrett Morgan. I was trying to decide which to focus on and then I discovered Katherine Johnson and knew I found my post subject. First a bit about how I discovered her. Back from my former life as a high school math teacher I have a friend who was a black history teacher (now he is an assistant principal). Every February he posts on his Facebook page about various black people and events. He only posts so his friends can see them so I have not been able to share them. However this year I have been Googling the person or event and pinning them to my Black History Month Board.  Be sure to check it out to learn about even more Black History. Well one of his posts this year was about Katherine Johnson and I knew I had found my post topic and the bonus is she also is a black mathematician!

I Am Amelia Earhart -- Ordinary People Change the World Blog Tour & Giveaway

Disclosure:  All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We had so much fun with I Am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. This was the second book that we read from the Ordinary People Change the World Series. Hazel fell in love with Amelia Earhart.

I Am Lucille Ball -- Oridnary People Change the World Blog Tour

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books & promotional items free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

On Monday I told you about the Ordinary People Changed the World Blog Tour this month. We shared I Am Abraham Lincoln on Monday. Today we get to share with you the first book in the series that we read, I Am Lucille Ball. We had the pleasure of reviewing this book back over the summer. It is the book that made Hazel fall in love with the series although now that she has read all of the books in the series thus far I do not think it is her favorite. Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos are doing an amazing job of bringing real life heroes to kids. And we are talking about people who deserve to be role models for our kids. 

Rigoberta Menchu

Back in August I had the pleasure of sharing She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World by Michael Elsohn Ross. One of the amazing 16 women I read about was Rigoberta Menchú. I decided then to focus on Rigoberta for Hispanic Heritage Month (there is a giveaway below). I wanted to share her story with Hazel (though she got bored--I guess I'll have to wait a few more years) and you.  Rigoberta is an indigenous woman from Guatemala. She has dedicated her life to promoting indigenous rights in Guatemala. She received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

Rigoberta with other Human Rights Activists in 1992 By Moya110 (Own work) 
[GFDL or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

She Takes a Stand Book Review

Disclosure: Chicago Review Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Now it may be the way my mother brought me up, but I love reading stories about strong women. I also love teaching Hazel about strong women. When I first saw the book, She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World by Michael Elsohn Ross, I thought I might be able to read about each woman to Hazel. We tried this, but several of them were beyond her true understanding and she was always asking questions about what it meant. We decided we would have to save it for when she was older, but I got to enjoy reading it. 

Mary and Mary Magdalene for Women's History Month

With today being Palm Sunday and Easter a week away, I thought we would learn more about two of the women who loved Jesus, his mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Besides the Bible I wanted to share with Hazel what is known about these to Biblical women. I found a few books on each of them. We have only been able to read one from each person, but I found these books on Amazon or available at our public library.

Women in Professional Baseball for Women's History Month

As I mentioned last week in my Women Inventors post, I see Women's History Month as a time to show Hazel women who were successful doing many different things. This year I found a bunch of books about women playing professional baseball. I remembered the movie A League of Their Own and I thought how fun to teach her about women in a non-traditional role and in a sport. It also helps that she has been hearing about the Boston Red Sox at school. 

Women Inventors

Each year for Women's History Month, I try to find books at the library about different women for Hazel to hear their stories and know the difference women play in history. This year one of our focuses has been on women inventors. I found nine women who invented something and have a book at about Hazel level written on them. Some of these books I have not read yet since they are requested from other libraries and have not arrived, so I am guessing a bit on the levels. I will share a bit about each women in this post: Ruth Wakefield, Grace Hopper, Gertrude Elion, Hedy Lemarr, Martha Coston, Stephanie Kwolek, Margaret Knight, Mary Anderson and Amanda Jones.