I assumed I would be able to send it to my kindle but unfortunately that was not the case. I have given a neutral rating due to that and the fact that I enjoyed the previous rebel girl books.

I am always on the lookout for children's books with strong real-life role models and I was so pleased by these chapter books. These go much more in-depth than the younger picture book versions of similar stories and have much more elevated language. It also doesn't hurt that they have vibrant colors and beautiful illustrations. I can't wait to buy these for the kiddos in my life!

This is what I've been looking for in the rebel girls series (other than bipartisan representation!). My secondary complaint to the rebel girls series has been that the one page stories just don't give enough information about these extraordinary leaders, and therefore don't give girls a clear picture of what it takes to become a leader...the hard work, the time, the dedication. But with these chapter books, each girl and her story can be given so much more detail. The illustrations are beautiful as always. And the writing is simple enough for young girls to be inspired by women from all differing cultures.
Even I learned something about each of these women (some of whom I had never ever heard of). Which is cool. It also starts great conversations with my daughter and we always look the women up online to find out more to put their story and life into context.

I was happy to accept all of this series as one full-sized digital file for review, even though I was not completely on board with some of the contents I'd seen before. The opening volume in the set, concerning Ada Lovelace, overdid the feminist side by hiding Charles Babbage away until halfway through the story, and the whole seemed too dressed up with fictional, novelistic style and invented dialogue to be a proper biography. (Original review to be had at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3043664116?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1) The style issues continued with the novelised look at Madam CJ Walker and her hair product empire (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3043618765?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1), although when it came to Junko Tabei I didn't mind so much. It may have been that this was a better example of this format, it may have been I was starting from zero when knowledge of the subject was concerned. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3702183558?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Alongside Ms Tabei, February 2020 also gave us a look at Africa's environmental issues, and how one of Mother Africa's own daughters helped as well as she could to rectify the problems over-farming caused. I could swing to give this four stars, but I still found a better, snappier book that could have been edited out from amongst all the factional detail. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3702333901. But for me the series finished on a high with a look at an unknown(-to-me) Cuban ballet choreographer and dancer, who bucked the trend in being here for girly-girly cultural reasons and not STEM success, exploring or industriousness; who bucked the trend in actually having the depth to her narrative that a book the length of these would need; and who in bringing what I'd wanted all along from these books showed me to be right in my thinking about them. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3702428585 was a great read, an education even for adults passing this way, and a fine way to close out this gift box of the five volumes. Now, if something could be done about the prohibitive RRP (of $50!!) this would fly off the shelves. Marked on merit, it's four stars at least.

This is a lovely read to inspire young readers which features real-life stories of five inspirational women, who all pursued their dreams and achieved their potentials. Readers can read about Ada Lovelace, Madam C. J. Walker, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Junko Tabei, and Alicia Alonso and more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy.