A 2019 Bank Street Best Book of the Year

SHAKING THINGS UP
14 Young Women Who Changed the World

Illustrated by 13 Extraordinary Women
HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780062699459

"Well-behaved women seldom make history." —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian 

Fresh, accessible, and inspiring, Shaking Things Up introduces fourteen revolutionary young women—each paired with a noteworthy female artist—to the next generation of activists, trail-blazers, and rabble-rousers. The stellar ensemble of picture book illustrators include Selina Alko, Sophie Blackall, Lisa Brown, Hadley Hooper, Emily Winfield Martin, Oge Mora, Julie Morstad, Sara Palacios, LeUyen Pham, Erin K. Robinson, Isabel Roxas, Shadra Strickland, and Melissa Sweet. 

In this book, you will find Mary Anning, who was just thirteen when she unearthed a prehistoric fossil. You’ll meet Ruby Bridges, the brave six-year-old who helped end segregation in the South. And Maya Lin, who at twenty-one won a competition to create a war memorial, and then had to appear before Congress to defend her right to create.

And those are just a few of the young women included in this book. Readers will also hear about Molly Williams, Annette Kellerman, Nellie Bly, Pura Belpré, Frida Kahlo, Jacqueline and Eileen Nearne, Frances Moore Lappé, Mae Jemison, Angela Zhang, and Malala Yousafzai—all whose stories will enthrall and inspire. This book was written, illustrated, edited, and designed by women and includes an author’s note, a timeline, and additional resources.

BEST of the YEAR LISTS

  • Best Children's Nonfiction of 2018 —The Children's Book Review

  • "Twelve Books for Feminist Boys and Girls" —The New York Times

  • 2019 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List

  • A 2019 Bank Street Best Book of the Year 

  • Named to the 2019 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List

  • Selected for CCBC Choices Book 2019

  • Selected as a Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2019

  • Named to the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s 2018 list of Great Books for Kids

Praise for SHAKING THINGS UP

★ Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)

“Each poem and illustration shines with a personality all its own. Shaking Things Up also has back matter for invested readers, including an author's note, sources, books, and websites. All of the young women discussed in this picture book 'dared to step out of the box' and, for that, 'the world is a better place.‘
—Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor

Children's Book Council

"A stellar ensemble of picture book creators—all women—join together to celebrate a sampling of history’s young female revolutionaries. Inspired by the Women’s March and the ongoing focus on women’s rights—here is the ideal introduction for the next generation of tenacious and determined rabble-rousers."

Kirkus Reviews

Hood highlights female activists in an impressive array of fields — firefighting (Molly Williams, first known female firefighter in the U.S.), paleontology (Mary Anning, who at age thirteen discovered an ichthyosaur), librarianship (Pura Belpré), journalism (Nellie Bly), undercover operatives (Jacqueline and Eileen Nearne), architecture (Maya Lin), and much more. The first female African American astronaut is here (Mae Jemison), as well as Frances Moore Lappé, food writer and anti-hunger activist: She “keeps Earth’s soil and water clean / … helps the hungry grow more beans … / This is the Earth that Lappé dreamed.” Each poem and illustration is followed by a brief bio of each woman, and the book closes with a list of sources and information for further reading.

“I chose to write this book … to celebrate the world I want for my daughters, my new granddaughter, and the young girls and boys out there,” Hood writes in an author’s note. If I could give her a fist bump for including “and boys” there, I would. And that’s because boys need to see these stories of powerful women just as much as girls do. —Julie Danielson

Publisher's Weekly

Selina Alko, Sophie Blackall, and LeUyen Pham are among 13 woman illustrators whose artwork accompanies Hood’s biographical tributes to trailblazing women, several of whom are far from household names. Multistanza poems do a fine job of encapsulating each woman’s life, and they’re bolstered by quotations, supplementary paragraphs, a timeline, and back matter. “Buried Treasure,” about paleontologist Mary Anning, is a concrete poem that takes the shape of her discovery: an ichthyosaur (the phrase “fabulous flippers” forms one flipper). Swimmer Annette Kellerman, who modernized women’s swimwear, is joined by a mermaid in Emily Winfield Martin’s images (“Who can swim fifty laps/ wearing corsets and caps?” she protests after being arrested for swimming without pantaloons). These encouraging profiles of astronauts, artists, and activists both honor past accomplishments and point toward ways young readers themselves might change the world, too. Ages 4–8.

“This book has definitely made an impact on my life.” —Kitt Shapiro, daughter of Eartha Kitt

New York Journal of Books

"This book stands out from the rest for so many reasons. The collaboration, the women chosen, the layout, the bonus material all make it a one-of-a-kind biography that will surely start a new genre of picture book biographies….groundbreaking."
—Susan Middleton Elya

The New York Times

"Most Americans say they believe in the full equality of men and women — the most straightforward definition of feminism — and that they want to raise children that way. But researchers say children absorb stereotypes, including about gender roles, by age 3. To teach children to think in a more equal way takes effort, and children’s books are a way in. They have the power to teach values and to expand children’s sense of what’s possible. When children read books that break gender stereotypes, research has found, they reach for less stereotypical toys and broaden their future goals. Based on the latest social science about gender, we made a list of 12 books published in the last three years that help teach children gender equality..." —"Twelve Books for Feminist Boys and Girls"

See my Resources Page for more information, sources, websites, books, videos, and notes about the poetry forms used in this book.