Canadian Women Now and Then: More than 100 Stories of Fearless Trailblazers

Gr 5-8–This collection of short biographies highlights Canadian women who have overcome adversity and discrimination to become innovators and leaders in their fields. Each page pairs a woman from the present with a woman from the past. The author includes trailblazers from a wide variety of occupations, such as activists, inventors, mathematicians, poets, and Olympians. While many of the women may be unfamiliar to young readers, their accomplishments will be familiar. For example, Ayah Bdeir created the tech company littleBits to teach children engineering skills, and sisters Tegan and Sara recorded “Everything Is Awesome,” a song featured in The Lego Movie. The book includes a variety of women from diverse backgrounds and shares interesting details about their personal lives. MacLeod uses a conversational writing style that children will find easy to understand. The book is organized alphabetically by the professional field. Each profile is accompanied by an illustrated image of the woman. A palette of earth-tone colors is used throughout the book. While the overall continuity is pleasing to the eye, primary photographs of the contemporary women would have been more authentic. An additional list of “More Inspiring Canadian Women” and a list of selected sources are included in the back matter.