"Why She Wrote" is a mix between autobiography and graphic novel. about 18 classic women writers.
With a summary page about their lives - one page at the beginning of every chapter - we discover why she wrote, her fun facts and bibliography.
Theese authors are represented like a linked trio, even if they haven't personally known eachother.
The title is also about the development of women's rights.

The passage between written pages and comic was a little bit "hard" sometimes.
I think that the script font used was difficult to read.

This is a great book for advanced readers and adults alike. The graphic elements provided context to a formational aspect of each author's life and work. The content wasn't always groundbreaking, but the format brought these stories to life and made me want to reread some of my favorites and read some other authors for the first time. I recommend it for any lover of classics and would happily give a copy to any young reader looking to be inspired by some legendary authors.

A very interesting way to learn about these literary heroines!

Despite the difficulties of being women of their times, they managed to find in literature a form of expression for the oppression against women.

In addition to noting that in hardships there is also inspiration.

EASY AND PRETTY

A good mix of biography and graphic novel. It was an interesting and new mix and I enjoyed it. There were some issues for me, but overall I think this is a worthy book for anyone who is interested to learn more about classical women writers.

👍 What I Liked 👍

Graphics: The graphics that described a scene in each woman's life were interesting and engaging. They had just the right amount of emotions and feelings, some of them were even quite humorous. The artwork was slightly dark and heavy, but if you're into that, it was very pretty.

Easy: This is an easy entry point to learning more about these amazing women. It doesn't drag on, it gives you the important points and may just help wet your appetite. Don't expect to get the entire story here, each biography is only one page long - but this is a good place to start.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

Autobiography: I don't like it when people perpetuate the notion that all women's fiction is autobiographical to a lesser or greater extend. We never say that about men's fiction, so why do we keep saying it about women? As if women are incapable of original thought. At times I felt like this book bought into that idea a bit too much, which bothered me.

Title: The title actually threw me off, because I was expecting to learn more about what drove these amazing women to write. However, I don't think I got that answer for any of the women...

Lesser known: I really wish that this book would have included more lesser known women, such as Jane Porter or Maria Edgeworth. They deserve to be remembered and written about as well.

This was a pretty interesting compilation of information about various women writers. My favorite part was definitely the artwork - it was beautiful. Because so many writers were covered, there's not a lot of in-depth information about any one writer. However, if you're just looking for a nice overview of women writers (and are looking to be introduced to a few new ones), then this is a great place to go.

Happy International Women's Day everybody! In honor of today I had the privilege of reading Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers. This book is half truncated biographies of 18 female authors from the 18th, 19th, and 20th century and half graphic retellings of incidents that affected these authors' lives. Having studied a lot of these authors (I'd also like to make a shout-out to the amazing history podcast The History Chicks who have in-depth biographical episodes on 8 of the women covered in this book) there are pros and cons to how the book is laid out.

The copy I received is over 250 pages so I understand that space is limited, however I felt like the biographies might of suffered due to the need to keep them to one page. A lot of the biographies focus heavily on what led up to the scene that is graphically represented but doesn't explain what happens afterwards. I also noticed in the beginning the transition from the biography to the graphic retelling was at times perplexing and left the reader a little lost. However, by the end of the book it was easier to jump from the biographies straight into the graphics. I don't know if it was user error or having to do with the structural elements in the writing at the beginning versus midway through the book. It is very anglocentric with 13 out of 18 of the authors being British.

However, I enjoyed the read and found the graphic sequences to be interesting. The artwork is muted in color and it translated the struggles these women faced in an evocative way. There are some dark scenes conveyed through these graphic stories so I wouldn't recommend this book for children. This book also introduced me to some authors I'd never heard of. It's always exciting to discover new women and their work and I definitely added some books mentioned in Why She Wrote to my to-read list. I liked how the book divided the authors into six different groups that highlighted themes shared by the authors in that grouping. The introduction to each group was some of my favorite writing in the book. Overall if you're interested in classic literature and the stories of behind the women who wrote some of the most influential literature in the English language I'd recommend picking this up as a good starting point.

I give this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This book is a very interesting and educational introduction to some of the greatest classic women writers. Some names are very familiar, others are introductions to fascinating women. All of them further reason to be in awe of what they accomplished in their lifetimes and add them to the TBR list.
We meet each writer in quick snapshots of their lives followed by a short comic of a particularly important/relevant moment in their lives. The comics are pretty straightforward when it comes to the art style, but they express the emotions and events pretty clearly.
Overall, I would have liked to get a bit more info on the writers, but I do appreciate the art and how it gives you enough information to do your own research if you're interested enough in a writer.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the early read!

This is such a great book for anyone who wants to read more about women writers. There is a great mix of comic and regular writing and is great for everyone of all ages.

The premise of the Why She Wrote is what drew me in, but I was actually pretty disappointed. My expectations were for a graphic novel about the lives and writings of classic female authors. What I got was a lot of background text in paragraph forms and one illustrated scene from each writer’s life. The biographies didn’t flow well into the panels, and the panels didn’t flow well into the summary information.

The book was divided into sections based loosely on genre or life experience. It felt, however, like the authors were lumped together randomly. The intro pages to each section didn’t explain why these authors were grouped with one another.

The illustrations themselves were also lackluster and seemed to be done in three different styles. In the introductions to each section, there is a more stylized illustrated bust of each author. The cover page of each section also has an illustration of each author done in a different style. The panels have a very comic-book feel to them. The faces on each of these three versions is different, however, the faces of each character in the panels looked the same. Had the not be labeled, I would not have been able to distinguish one character from the next. The text in the comics was also difficult to read, especially the diary writing sections.

Overall, this one was a letdown.

Thank you yo #netgalley and #chroniclebooks for gifting me an ARC of Why She Wrote, which comes out April 20, 2021! I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic history of the lives of many female writers- some I was very familiar with (the Brontes, Austen, Alcott, etc) and some I knew little of (Anne Lister, Alice Dunbar-Nelson). This was a really fun, quick read that reinvigorated my love for some classic works- I can't wait to read Northanger Abbey and Withering Heights again! This is a book I would 100% recommend to parents and teachers, especially for eager young readers and writers! I only wish it were longer so we could read about more writers!

This was an interesting graphic novel that had 18 comics that dealt with women writers and why they started to write, their inspiration, and their lives in general. Many of these were very good and were stories I had never read about. This is a clever idea to teach about these inspirational women throughout history. I recommend this to those that like the classics, especially if you want to learn about authors.

very inspiring. I think this is a book every woman and every man should be made to read for that matter... It motivated me and compelled me to push forth despite the obstacles I may find. These women have battled so much in the long road to equality for women. Now, we need to honour them by reading and enjoying/learning from their works, and by supporting other women who are going on a similar path.

I was given a free ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
Why She Wrote was nice. Each section was brief and easy to digest. I did learn some interesting facts about some beloved female authors but the writing was flat. The authors did not convey any passion to the women they talked about. They seemed to be novel paper dolls instead of real people.
3 out of 5 Stars

I received this copy an ARC from Netgalley. #NetGalley

Amazingly beautiful illustrations and words that hit your heart. This is a perfect book for women's month and I'm so glad that I got it from netgalley.

This was a very enjoyable, informative, and entertaining read! I really liked the way it wasn't just straight up written paragraphs about the lives of these authors, but included little snippets of their lives through comics. This aspect really made reading this book even more fun to read, as the art was also beautiful to look at. I also appreciated how the introductions for each women were not too long, but still managed to cover basic information. Personally, I learned a lot from this book and it was quite inspirational too. I thought that the selection could just be a little bit more diverse though.

Having taught British and American Literature at the secondary level for several years, I find this graphic novel a refreshing new resource to present author background information. Each author's chapter features a brief biography that provides background and context for the short comic episode illustrating their life. The chapters are sorted into thematic groups, such as authors who were financially-minded, authors who wrote under pen names, et cetera. The language is easily accessible for any students from middle through high school. Coupled with the comic sections, this is even a great text to encourage reluctant or struggling readers to engage in these famous biographies.

I do feel that some familiarity with literature is required to fully appreciate the nuances of these texts. For example, at one point, Emily Dickinson is mentioned in a section dedicated to another author, but Emily Dickinson doesn't feature at any point in this collection. Therefore, a student would need to know who Emily Dickinson was in order to fully appreciate the point. This would not, however, prevent someone from understanding the section as a whole.

In terms of lesson planning, if I were going to introduce Frankenstein for example, many of the major details of Mary Shelley's life are beautifully illustrated within these pages. The section devoted to Mary Wollstonecraft also provides a good understanding of Mary Shelley's unusual upbringing. That background information would help students analyze the symbolism throughout Shelley's novel as it relates to her life and experiences. This graphic novel would also be very useful in a social studies class investigating the development of women's rights. Central to many of the narratives throughout the novel is the women's suffrage movement. The afterward that explains Louisa May Alcott was the first woman to register to vote in her county leaves the entire narrative on a very positive and uplifting note. This is a refreshing and engaging way to research the development of women's legal and social issues throughout history.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance review copy of this book!
I enjoyed this quite a bit, and I like how the authors found illuminating influences/moments in each writer's life, supplemented by background info. If anything, my only wish is for MORE graphic panels. This was a good effort and I think it'd make a great addition to school and other libraries.

This was an engaging read covering the personal lives of 18 classical, female writers and covers a lot of the influcence impacting their lives. I would highly recommend this book for any English teacher (and I will likely figure out a way to incorporate it into my own teaching!)

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is an amazing book. Not only did it give me new information around some of my favorite authors, but this book also gave me interest in authors that I previously had decided not to read. The illustrations were catching and entertaining as well. This book builds on the history, the stories and the legends of the authors. I would recommend this for those that love reading, are beginning readers, young girls or looking for new information on icons. This is a great book for everyone to enjoy.

A great collection of short comics dedicated to women writers. Each story tells a small piece of their lives with a written forward and afterword to give more biographical details and context. A list of relevant works is included as well if one would like to do further reading. I would have liked the inclusion of a few less celebrated authors as most in the collection are generally pretty well known. Overall though a great collection and good place to start for anyone interested in women writers or the history of literature.