Girls Can! Make it Happen ANNOTATION
Encourages girls to set their own course, knowing that they can do and be anything at all when they set their minds to it and make it so. Briefly describes how Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Sally Ride achieved their dreams.
SYNOPSIS
Written in verse, this children's book is intended to inspire girls that they can do anything! Included in the book are the stories of Sandra Day O'Connor the first woman on the US Supreme Court; Sally Ride the first American woman astronaut; and Jackie Joyner-Kersee an Olympic medal winner in track and field. Girls Can! is a powerful message to let little girls know they can be anything they want to be! Full-color illustrations are used throughout the book.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Claudia Mills, Ph.D.
In case anyone still doubts that women can be capable, contributing citizens, Kupchella hammers home this point in awkward, forced rhyme telling the stories of Sandra Day O'Connor, Sally Ride, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Young Jackie "was the fastest runner around" who "blew past all the kids in the town." Young Sandra helped her dad "however she could" and "when she grew up . . . she got really good." Young Sally "could add & subtract all her numbers" and knew the names "of the guys who played for the Dodgers." Rhymes like these are the reason so many editors refuse to read rhyming manuscripts. (At times the verse has obvious echoes of Dr. Seuss's infinitely more successful Oh, the Places You'll Go!) But the inspirational thoughts here feel mainly preachy and condescending. The jacket flap gushes that this is a "message that will never grow old," but it has (thankfully) been old for several decades now. 2004, Tristan, Ages 4 to 8.
Art & Photography
Book Info
