Summary: In 2011, the United Nations declared that October 11 would be an annual day of recognition for girls around the world–the International Day of the Girl. This book tells the stories of nine (fictional) girls from all over the world who experienced gender inequality, and took action to remedy it. Each one is introduced by name and a personality trait (“This is Abuya. She is creative”), then tells a brief version of her story, including a sidebar about the more global issue it connects to. For instance, in Kenya, Abuya overheard her older sister asking to stay home from school because there was no girls’ bathroom. Assisted by her father, Abuya used her carpentry skills to build an outhouse. The sidebar describes the issue of providing safe bathroom facilities so girls are able to get an education. An illustration accompanies each story. Includes a timeline of events leading to the creation of the International Day of the Girl and further information about each of the issues facing girls addressed in the book. 32 pages; grades 2-6.

Pros: This was the first I had heard of the International Day of the Girl, and this introduction explains many of the issues affecting girls around the world in a way that readers will understand and connect with. The introduction uses the metaphor of a garden that’s been divided into two halves, with one half receiving all the nurturing and attention. The colorful illustrations continue that metaphor, and the last page encourages kids to “be the world’s gardener”. Another excellent entry in the CitizenKid series.

Cons: A map showing where the different girls live around the world and some additional resources would have been useful additions.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Simone Shin, and is the story behind celebrating the International Day of the Girl, each year on October 11, starting 2011, thanks to the efforts of Honourable Rona Ambrose, a Canadian politician, and a passionate advocate for gender equality in Canada and throughout the world.

To everyone who often ask to this day, why special days for girls and women, like gender inequality doesn't exist, or just turning a blind eye to the issues women face right from childhood, the book starts with a beautiful analogy of the story of turning a blind eye to one half of a garden, and the need to nurture this half to make the entire garden flourish.

The book addresses key issues of women especially girls - Gender based violence, child marriage, illiteracy, sanitation, disability, difficulty in access to computer literacy, and education in general, the effect of natural and man-made emergencies and disasters on girls. And advocates the importance of listening to their voices in decision-making, the need for a proper nutrition, and a well balanced representation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) through short stories of girls around the world, stressing on the impact a dedicated day can have on the lives of girls.

This day can help in discussing the positive changes that have happened to girls lives around the world, help bringing about more such changes, and discussing the issues that still exist, and the efforts needed and steps taken towards a gender unbiased world at large.

Highly recommended for boys, to understand why it is important to nurture the other half of the planet.

There are many books that try to emphasize girl power or the strength of girls, but this book, with it's gorgeous illustrations showcases girls or color from around the world. Each story, which introduces girls by name, highlights an asset such as talent, strength or creativity. The book is excellent for pre-adolescent girls who may doubt their presence or place in the world.

I was able to read International Day of the Girl by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Rona Ambrose for free from Netgalley for providing me with an advanced ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book celebrates girls and their potential to change the world. It does a great job of explaining social injustices and inequalities around the world.

This is a fantastic resource for libraries everywhere, especially school libraries. The concise, descriptive biographies of a diverse group of girls will inspire young readers everywhere. A perfect book for read-a-longs and independant reading for emerging readers, the book presents opportunities for students to create some biographies of strong girls in their own lives. The colourful illustrations are beautiful and an attractive cover will draw others to want to read this book. I will certainly recommend this book to others - I look forward to purchasing for my little nieces! Excellent work!

Each page is a real life story presenting a struggle young girls have today.
The best part of this is that the girls deal with each situation and find solutions for themselves.
Each story is accompanied by a small blurb describing in more detail the issues of that community.
This is a fabulous way to get kids talking about inequality and respect.
Thanks goes to NetGalley & Kids Can Press for my DRC.

This was a book that took on a multiple telling as it not only explored what it took to have the United Nations to approve a date for girl children but also confronted the need by exploring the lives of several fictional girls whose stories are based on actual events taking place around the world in many different cultures, which hit home, especially after learning that some places such as India will abort children who are sexed in the womb as females instead of giving them a chance to be born.

The book starts off with a metaphor about coming upon a beautiful garden although not all of it is beautiful for half of it has been neglected and abused. From there the reader is taken upon a tour of several different stories that are just two pages long - one page being given to a full illustration showing the female character in a background related to the story and the next page giving the story for that particular girl.

At the end there is a little box that goes into depth on exploring the issue that is confronted in the story and how much it affects girls as well as one. Each of these boxes also has difference colored and type of flower to relate it to the garden metaphor. And at the end of the book there are also other statistics exploring the true numbers of the problems.

All in all it is a pretty good book and for the cause it is probably one of the best that has been presented that I have read. And I would definitely recommend this read for any age group who is exploring feminism or the need for gender reform throughout all cultures.

***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

From a girl who convinces her small Russian town to become more accessible to those with disabilities to the girl getting other kids excited about STEM, this inspiring book highlights spunky and smart girls solving problems and taking action to improve their world. A very timely book.

(Review written based on an ARC from NetGalley.)

'The International Day of the Girl' is a beautiful picture book that celebrates the contributions young women have made to their communities. The stories contained are fascinating and highlight some of the challenges faced in countries all over the world. This book contains a lot of text and highlights sometimes complex issues, so it would be best for readers age 8 and up. Overall, a wonderful, empowering book for young readers.

Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing this ARC.

I requested and received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and Kids Can Press in exchange for my honest review.

This book tells the stories of nine different girls around the world that have suffered injustices because of their gender. This book also explains how October 11 became the International Day of the Girl. Each page contains the story of one of the nine girls and a box further explaining the situation affecting their part of the world. The stories were told well and with age appropriate language.

**I received 'The International Day of the Girl' through NetGalley and Kids Can Press, in exchange for an honest review**

The International Day of the Girl is a thoughtful compilation of inspirational stories of girls situated around the world. There are amazing tales of girls learning in underground schools, as well as other young women achieving the skills of carpentry and astronomy thanks to progressive-thinking families. These stories were equal parts emotional and heartwarming, each girl's personal portrait described in rich detail.

Towards the back, this book offers a thorough timeline of events leading up to the 2011 declaration of, International Day of the Girl (October 11). I loved this brief yet concise history lesson as to how this important day came to be. This education book is suitable for children of all elementary grade levels,, since it offers age-appropriate account of the importance of equal rights. This is valuable reading material for educators everywhere!

Title: International Day of the Girl, The
Celebrating Girls Around the World
by Jessica Dee Humphreys; Rona Ambrose
Kids Can Press
Children's Nonfiction
Pub Date: 01 Sep 2020
Review: Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3339649986?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

This book is to help children understand that it is not ok to treat a girl differently from a boy just because she is a girl. We get stories from girls that live in places from all over the world. Each story is different from the next and teaches a different lesson.

Though it may be difficult to believe that a book of this subject may need to exist in 2020, there are some real hard hitting facts in this book. We may think the world has moved forward as one but the truth is that we have not. This book shows that for many places it is still the norm that people place girls second.

Personally I have been aware of much that has been told in these stories but I think it is done in a balanced way for children. It doesn't lie to them but it is not overly graphic either. Definitely something I would read to the children in my family. I was surprised to see that there was no story about male inheritance but other wise I felt that most problems facing girls were covered.

This is the story of how October 11th became the International Day of the Girl. It focuses on nine girls from different backgrounds and different countries like Brazil, Kenya, India, Nigeria, Syria or Afghanistan, each hoping for something many girls don't have access to. Everyone knows there's an International Women's Day, but I personally didn't know there is a day to celebrate girls. Such a day is important to teach all children the importance of gender equality and girls' rights.

It reminded me of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, but this book focuses not on famous girls, but on ordinary girls longing for things usually reserved for boys only. Through nine different girls we learn of social issues girls worldwide struggle with such as illiteracy, access to education, child marriage, sanitation, or right to play, which something I didn't know was written in the Rights of the Child. Each girl in the book is given the name and a positive trait that characterises her, like bravery, creativity, talent, humour, ambition. Then a short and concise presentation of what the issue she faces is. I love that structure and the positive light shone on each girl.

At the end of the book there is a timeline of how the International Day of the Girl came to be, and further information on all the struggles and social issues mentioned in the book.

This is not a book for girls, but for children, boys and girls! As a quote from the book says, equality benefits everyone in the end.

I read this inspirational book with my 10-year-old daughter.
It's another beautifully presented global perspective title from Kids Can Press - the author's previous work includes Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War, from the same publisher. I would place its intended audience at middle-grades (ages 8-13), as it contains a reasonable amount of text and some challenging issues. It is also beautifully illustrated in a colour-block / collage style by Simone Shin.
As the title reveals, the book investigates the importance of celebrating a particular day - 11 October - each year, dedicated to promoting gender equality and championing the rights and achievements of girls throughout the world. Rather than consider major issues such as violence against women, access to educational opportunities, access to sanitation and child mariage as nebulous concepts, the book is broken into nine stories, each detailing an individual (fictional) girl's experience. The girls live in all corners of the world (excepting Australia/Oceania), and are confronting issues including lack of suitable school buildings, malnutrition due to gender inequality within the family, the mental health impacts of life in a refugee camp and feeling marginalised by societal stereotypes as to interests and eventual career choice.
Without exception, the girls take personal responsibility for their concerns, and set about finding solutions. In many cases, this requires the girl to build self-belief before standing up to authority figures to ask for change. While the results the girls achieved were inspiring, I felt that a few of the examples were perhaps unrealistic - eg. the Nigerian girl, Keeya, presents her research on why forced child marriage is harmful to girls to the religious leaders, who debate the issue for a few weeks, then outlaw child marriage. It's overly simplistic and tends to minimise the prolonged and determined effort that is acually required to achieve significant cultural changes. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that many of these scenarios will seem unfamiliar to privileged western readers, the over-riding message is that girls must believe in themselves and their right to have the same opportunities and access that men and boys enjoy. The book also highlights the importance of standing up and saying what you believe in to those who wield power, and of passing on the skills and knowledge we receive to other girls and women for their benefit. The book uses a garden metaphor at the beginning and end to illustrate this. While the majority of the stories focus on girls growing up in underprivileged circumstances, the garden segments represent a call to action to all girls, particularly those with privilege, to play their part in the ongoing struggle for gender equality. A timeline at the end of the book traces the development of the International Day of the Girl from The inception of the UN in 1945 to the present day and a Further Information section provides additional references for the issues referred to in the stories.
The material contained in this book is appropriate for girls aged between 8 and 13, and while it touches on confronting topics such as child marriage and access to sanitation, there are no explicit references to menstruation, rape, FGM or child-exploitation. All the stories depict "happy endings", which might not be completely realistic, but which will leave readers in an up-beat frame of mind.
Overall, both my daughter and I enjoyed the book. She enjoyed the parallels between her own (privileged) life and those depicted in the stories of the nine girls. I found the biographical information about the authors, the Further Information section and the timeline of the development of the International Day of the Girl particularly interesting.
I would recommend this book to all girls and their parents who are interested in gender equality and what it means in an international context. I will also be recommending that my daughter's school library acquire a copy of the book.
Thank you to the authors, Jessica Dee Humphreys and and the Honourable Rona Ambrose, the Illustrator Simone Shin, publisher Kids Can Press, Canada and Netgalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this title.
#netgalley
#InternationalDayoftheGirl #CelebratingGirlsAroundtheWorld @jdeehumphreys @KidsCanPress

I enjoyed this short book about how girls around the world are treated differently and less favourably than boys. Even in a wealthy nation, a girl wonders why all the spacecraft toys and books are in the boys' part of the store. In a poor nation the problem may be as basic as no toilets in school, or harassment in a refugee camp. Specific ongoing issues include the female half of the family eating after the men have finished and not getting enough food, or girls being forced to marry early.

On each issue we meet an actual girl (This is Aster. She is ambitious.) and see how she has met such challenges and dealt with them. The colourful illustrations help kids imagine the life of their friends they haven't met yet.

At the end we learn about the UN Day of the Girl Child.
The book is kid friendly so don't worry about giving this to kids of any age to read. Older girls can read between the lines. Older boys, well we hope they learn that everyone deserves the same chances, but they don't actually get told not to be bullies or that life will be better for them if they respect girls. We do see they join a science club started by a girl. Age from six up to twelve, with an adult to help young kids understand everything. Be ready for some questions.

I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

The International Day of the Girl celebrates girls and their their potential to change the world in a positive way. This book does a great job explaining social injustices and inequalities around the world such as child marriage, lack of adequate education and technological resources, and gender based violence. The information is presented through nine brief stories which makes learning about these global issues assessible to young children. Lovely illustrations with positive and empowering messages.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press publishers for providing a free ARC

Oh my gosh. I love this book! I want all my students to read it. I love the format with the illustration on one side and the text on the other. I can't wait to introduce this book to my classes! It will be on the first order for the year.

This book is simply wonderful, and if I had a daughter, I would buy this book for her. It's beautifully illustrated and covers heavy subjects such as child marriage, sanitation, and nutrition. Despite it being 2020, we are still fighting for equality for women and girls, and this book does a fantastic job at teaching young children about these issues in an age appropriate way.

This is a book that I would LOVE to read to my daughter in the future. But with some heavy topics covered, I’ll leave it a bit yet.

These hard topics are tackled from a proactive perspective, celebrating what one girl can do for the many.

The illustrations are beautiful and are helpful in off-setting the darkness that can hover over the inequality highlighted in each story.

I really enjoyed seeing what character trait was exemplified by the girl in each story.

This book is a positive and encouraging tool for navigating the difficulty facing the girls in our world.

I loved this book. I truly think that this is an important book for children to read, especially girls. I enjoyed learning about the different stories of these girls, and how they overcome their challenges. Additionally, this book is beautifully illustrated. Everyone should read this book.