Black Icons in Herstory

This is an outstanding book. The biographies of each lady is great and the pictures are awesome!!! This is a book for any age. I will be recommending and hope there will be more like this. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving this book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

I loved this illustrated books. While there are the usual suspects there were some new icons. I also appreciated the inclusion of trans women and Afro Latinas. The range was a good balance of performers, artists, athletes, activists, writers, thought leaders and scholars. The descriptions were mostly bios but I did learn some new info.

This book was absolutely breathtaking. The art and each mini story about each woman was incredible. This is the perfect book for folks of all ages and would make a lovely gift.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronical Chroma for an eARC of Black Icons of Herstory: 50 Legendary Women by Darian Symore Harvin and Monica Ahanonu.

The pages of this book are graced with short biographies and absolutely gorgeous painted portraits of 50 incredible Black women from historical and contemporary America. What a fantastic book! It highlights some of the great names from the 20th century and beyond, and serves as a great jumping off point to go learn more. The graphics were absolutely beautiful, colorful, and well suited to capture the personality of each featured woman. I will say that my true rating is closer to a 4.5, but I rounded up to a 5 for ratings. My primary critique is that some of the biographies were written in a slightly odd format. I'm not sure how to put my finger on what was odd about them, but the first paragraph would often feature a blurb about what the woman was best known for, but in a narrative format that requires some foreknowledge or context to fully grasp. Some biographies lacked dates to place each woman's accomplishments within her historical context, and there were several typos that I trust will be edited before publication.

Overall, I highly recommend. This book is for everyone!

This would make an excellent coffee table book in any home! This book introduced me to several people I didn’t know and, taught me new things about the ones I did.

This book will be a great tool for introducing young children and pre-teens to the contributions of great women. What I enjoyed most was the profiles of women whose achievements are not often highlighted.

I loved seeing the pages filled with beautiful Black people and joy. Not only was the book a positive message of beauty and health and growth, but it did so while directly defying stereotypes about the Black family. I will continue to read this to my kids.

Thank you to Chronicle Books, Darian Symonè Harvin, Monica Ahanonu, & NetGalley for this advanced readers copy (ARC) of Black Icons of Herstory in exchange for my honest review!

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5/5 Stars
This is a book about women who are 19th & 20th century icons!
I like the format of this book,
I really enjoyed the illustrations, I think they're beautiful. I love the individual descriptions or "blurbs" that come before the illustrated images. There's so much information packed in just one page!

I expected and was happy to see trans women in this book, we definitely need more trans inclusion in our books. I also liked that there were several Afro Latinas!There were also a few gay women! 🏳️‍🌈! I was so moved and overjoyed to see my favorite author, Octavia E. Butler, included in this book! I got a little teary eyed looking at her illustration 💜

I think anyone could read this to learn more about 19th & 20th century icons!

This book is beautiful presentation of Black Women Icons!! Each story is beautify written. I especially loved the beautiful & colorful portraits of each Icon. This book would make a excellent gift for young woman. It will also make a great addition to my coffee table books.

Thanks to NetGalley, Chronicle Books & the authors for this ARC!