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For today’s Monday post, where I like to highlight a book or organization that is spotlighting or helping girls and women around the world, I have chosen Extraordinary Girls (Charlesbridge Publishing). The photos alone are fantastic, showing girls of different ages and races, smiling and doing amazing things. It targets girls in the upper elementary/lower middle school grades and speaks directly to them, which I love!

Extraordinary Girls is divided into different topics such as “Different Ways to Learn,” “Making a Difference,” “Religion and Spirituality,” “The Arts,” “Sports and Play,” and “Friendship.” Within each of these sections are photographs of real live girls doing something positive related to the topic. Also, each section highlights a girl who is active in this field/topic in the real world. Take for example in the “Making a Difference” section, young girls can read about Arlys Endres, from the United States, whom when she was 10 years old became an advocate for “herstory.” This means she wanted to fight for women’s stories–women who were important to American history–to be heard such as Susan B. Anthony. She joined the Susan B. Anthony campaign to reinstall statues of Anthony and two other feminists in the Rotunda (U.S. Capitol building). She wrote more than 2000 letters and raised almost $2,000!

In “The Arts,” Alexandra Nechita is highlighted. She is from Romania and has been painting since she was four years old and creates abstract art where she tries to express herself. By age 11, she published a book of her art work.

The book reminds me a little of a magazine format–which young girls should really like. They can skip to the sections that they are most interested in or read the book from cover to cover. This would be a perfect non-fiction selection for a mother daughter book club or for a fourth grader to do a book report on. I found my copy at our local library or you can order one online! Teachers and homeschoolers, you will LOVE the list of adjectives in the two-page spread after the title page. I would love to see a poster of it hanging in every classroom and library!

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15- October 15th. It is this month that celebrates the anniversary of independance from 5 Latin American countries that include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico declared it’s independance day on September 18th, and Chile on September 15th. At Farmer’s Hat Productions, our tagline is [...]