The ABCs of Women’s History

Gr 3 Up–While a single notable voice—Bahni Turpin—narrated Cortez’s previous bestseller, The ABCs of Black History, three very young readers take turns here, not always successful in tackling complex vocabulary and multi-syllabic names (Malala Yousafzai particularly stands out as challenging). Galbis-Kuffner and Chanin are charmingly (mostly) convincing with “activists” and “bookish,” all the way to “zeal” and “zooms.” Hanna-Sta. Ana—possibly a toddler?—sweetly giggles through announcing her own name during opening credits and then requires an unnamed (interestingly enough) male reader to slowly, softly pre-read the sentences which she then repeats, adorably, yes, but not especially clearly. Ironically, the targeted audience is potentially older than each of the narrators; their youth perhaps precludes including the impressively extensive “Terms and Figures” appendix at book’s end—a missed opportunity.