Unstoppable: Women with Disabilities

by Helen Wolfe (Author) Karen Patkau (Illustrator)

Unstoppable: Women with Disabilities
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Around the world, people living with disabilities face barriers in the built environment, in employment and education, and in social attitudes and policies that can make it hard to live a full and satisfying life.

The ten women we meet in this book face physical and mental health challenges, some from birth and some who became disabled later in life. But they all share the determination to make the world a better place, not just for themselves but for those who will come after them. Their fields are as diverse as elite sport, neurosurgery, architecture, and environmental activism, and while some have devoted themselves to disability policy, others prefer to lead by example. In either case they have proved themselves to be unstoppable.

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Hardcover
$19.95

Kirkus Reviews

An eclectic, accessible, and upbeat introduction to accomplished disabled women.

Booklist

These brief biographies, insightfully presented by an author with a physical disability herself, may motivate readers to do further research on these inspiring women.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-Wolfe, who has a physical disability herself, highlights the lives of 10 women with disabilities. They are a refreshingly diverse bunch; Wolfe has carefully selected women who have a range of disabilities, are employed in a variety of careers, and hail from all around the globe. Included, for example, is Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish climate change activist with autism. Haben Girma, an American whose parents emigrated from Eritrea, is blind and Deaf and in her work as a lawyer advocates for the rights of people with disabilities. Zhang Haidi is Chinese and lost the use of her legs as a child; she will be the head organizer of the Chinese Paralympians in 2022. A spread is devoted to each woman. The left side has a large colorful illustrated image of the subject, while the right side contains a page of text with biographical information that includes the subject's disability and recounts their significant accomplishments. Entries include a direct quote that encapsulates some of the principles guiding the work of the individual. VERDICT This collection of biographies is a great window into the lives of 10 contemporary and accomplished women with disabilities. Recommended for middle school readers.-Ragan O'Malley © Copyright 2022. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review quotes

Unstoppable: Women with Disabilities is an inspirational showcase of female role models, highly recommended for both school and public library children's collections.— "MBR: Children's Bookwatch"
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781772602098
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Second Story Press
Publication date
September 20, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | General
JNF023000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Girls & Women
JNF053180 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Social Topics | Special Needs
JNF069000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Diversity & Multicultural
Library of Congress categories
Biographies
Women with disabilities

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