Wonder Women! Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

What do Dominque Dawes, Harriet Tubman, Ruby Bridges, Shirley Chisholm, and Oprah Winfrey have in common?

They are all ground-breaking American women featured in Vashti Harrison's Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History (Vashti Harrison) (Little, Brown and Company, 2017). Dawes, an Olympic gymnast with many medals, and Harriet Tubman, famed conductor on the Underground Railroad who "never lost a passenger, share these pages with Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to be elected to Congress and first female candidate for president, and Oprah Winfrey, award-winning actress, multi-millionaire, and media mogul.

Author Vashti Harrison packs succinct information about 40 black women and girls, featuring appealing illustrations and brisk thumbnail sketches of women from all times in our history and all walks of life (including six-year-old Ruby Bridges, whose "walk" into a formerly segregated school integrated New Orleans' public schools all by herself).

Mae Jemison, mission commander astronaut, is there, along with the colonial slave Phylis Wheatley whose poetry earned praise from George Washington and Voltaire, Bessie Coleman, early prize-winning woman aviator, Josephine Baker, 1920s dancer and chanteuse who spied on the Nazis for the French Resistance in World War II, and both Ida B. Wells and Rosa Parks, who stood up for civil rights by keeping their seats.

This is a engaging compendium of bold African American women whose achievements should be celebrated in both February's Black History Month and March's Women's History Month. This small book for the youngest, which has won many starred reviews and is currently a top seller among children's books, is a first purchase for libraries who serve children. Says Kirkus Reviews, "This book begs to be picked up. Perfect for exploring at bedtime or for children to browse, a gorgeous invitation to children of all backgrounds...."