I didn't know this was a reprint from 2014 when I requested. For the Maine Student Book Award reprints are not eligible,

Oh, I think every woman and young girl needs this book! It was amazing, full of new and old trail blazers that are known to history. A fun book to help show girls that woman are strong and amazing in all they do.

Trail Blazers: An Illustrated Guide to the Women Who Explored the World by Lisa Graves is a picture book full of famous women explorers. I found it interesting and educational. There’s not a great amount of information, but what’s here is enough to give a sense of these women’s accomplishments, as well as their determination, in just enough detail to whet the reader’s curiosity.

Graves introduces readers to thirteen women who were influential explorers. Each woman gets one spread with a column about their life and most famous accomplishments. Further textboxes on the spread highlight major accomplishments, places travelled, etc. Some of these women are well known names, like Nellie Bly, Amelia Earhart, and Sacagewa, others are not so well known like Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Harriet Chalmers Adams, and Gertrude Bell. They explored any time between the mid 1700s to mid 1900s, used different methods of transportation, explored different areas of the world, but all were intrepid adventurers and left their marks in society, literature, science, archeology, geography, and more.

I received an ARC from Xist Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I loved the format, illustrations, and information. I just wish it had been longer.

A great book and really interesting- but are there really so few trail blazing women that it's a mere 17 pages? I felt I had barely begun to read it before it was over. Brilliant illustrations and simply but informatively written. Good for a unit on exploration.

Trailblazers: An Illustrated Guide to the Women Who Explored the World, written and illustrated by Lisa Graves, makes a clear, upfront case for itself in its introduction: “Most of what we learn in our school history classes was written by men. Because of this, some of these stories have been omitted from the books.” This book, then, is Graves answer to this omission, filling in some of gaps by presenting readers with a series of female explorers, scientists, ballooners, and the like.

Each woman is given a double-spread page softly illustrated in pleasing pastels and with several text boxes of information including specifics of the particular life and general explanations defining terms and placing their activities in context. The choices range from the familiar and to-be-expected, such as Sacagawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart to lesser known women such as Jeanne Baret (botanist and explorer), Sophie Blanchard (balloonist), Ida Laura Pfeifer (explorer-author), Fanny Bullock Workman (mountaineer), Harriet Chalmers Adamas (explorer-photographer), Edith Durham (archaeologist), Alexandra David Neel (Tibetan expert), Bessie Coleman (aviator, stuntwoman), Annie Londonderry (bicyclist, marketer), Gertrude Bell (explorer, historian).

In describing their exploits, Graves doesn’t shy away from conveying the injustice often afforded women, noting for instance that many of Baret’s botanic discoveries were “renamed, or someone else took credit for her work,” and that Adams was not allowed into the National Geographic Society thanks to their standing rule against women members. Nor has Graves chosen only “happy stories,” conveying the sad news that Pfeiffer died of malaria after one of her far-flung travels, that Coleman died in a plane crash, and that Blanchard was also “died doing what she loved” when her balloon caught fire and crashed.

There’s not a great amount of information, but what’s here is enough to give a sense of these women’s accomplishments, as well as their determination, in just enough detail to whet the reader’s curiosity so that, as Graves says in her introduction, . Maybe by reading this book, a spark will ignite that leads you to the library—to research your passions, read about something you love, and set your dreams into motion.” An excellent gift for young girls and boys.

Graves introduces readers to thirteen women who were influential explorers. Each woman gets one spread with a column about their life and most famous accomplishments. Further textboxes on the spread highlight major accomplishments, places travelled, etc. Some of these women are well known names, like Nellie Bly, Amelia Earhart, and Sacagewa, others are not so well known like Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Harriet Chalmers Adams, and Gertrude Bell. They explored any time between the mid 1700s to mid 1900s, used different methods of transportation, explored different areas of the world, but all were intrepid adventurers and left their marks in society, literature, science, archeology, geography, and more.

I found the lesser known names of the thirteen women in here to be the most interesting pages, particularly Gertrude Bell and Edith Durham who so positively impacted the areas they explored they are still revered by Iraq and Albanian respectively. This is a quick and fascinating read. Recommended to curious readers looking for a short but very intriguing nonfiction read. I can see this sparking further research in many readers as they hunt for more info on various women. I’ll definitely consider purchasing this for our library.

An excellent resource that beautifully told the stories of fabulous and, sadly, mostly unknown women.

'Trail Blazers: An Illustrated Guide to the Women Who Explored The World' written and illustrated by Lisa Graves is a picture book full of famous women explorers. I found it interesting and educational.

Starting with Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circle the entire globe, moving through Sacagawea and Edith Durham and Bessie Coleman, we are introduced to a group of women with varied backgrounds, but all possessing the bravery to learn about the world around them. There are botanists and pilots, historians and activists.

The 14 women in the book each get two pages of text and illustration devoted to them. There is also a reading list at the end and an encouraging foreword by the author. It's a great non-fiction book for younger readers.

I received a review copy of this ebook from X1st Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.