What would she do? 25 true stories of trailblazing rebel women

Kudos to Woodward for shaking the dust from women's history. With the design elements of a hip teen magazine, from language to quizzes, this introduces a wide-ranging group of 25 women, from Cleopatra to Virginia Woolf to Zaha Hadid, highlighting their willingness to step outside conventionality. The book's format has pick-me-up appeal. Each woman gets a page or so of biography, a quote, and a sidebar asking what she might do in a modern situation. Sometimes these are a little forced. What would Catherine the Great do if the class Whatsapp group made fun of her? She would leave the group. She would block the contacts. (In actuality, she'd probably have them murdered.) The illustrations are done by different artists and vary in quality, though their full-color execution lends dramatic appeal. And appeal is the book's strength. Most of this information can be found elsewhere, but many readers will be more likely to devour it in a volume that seems au courant. A closing quiz lets readers find out which trailblazer they most resemble.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2018 Booklist