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    Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels (Biography Books for Kids, Feminist Books for Girls)
    Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels (Biography Books for Kids, Feminist Books for Girls)
    Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels (Biography Books for Kids, Feminist Books for Girls)
    Ebook182 pages1 hour

    Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels (Biography Books for Kids, Feminist Books for Girls)

    By Linda Skeers and Livi Gosling

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    About this ebook

    The perfect introduction for learning about women throughout history who dared to do the extraordinary! Inspire our new generation of women to explore, discover, persist, succeed, and fight like a girl! A great gift for girls 9-12!

    Women have been doing amazing, daring, and dangerous things for years, but they're rarely mentioned in our history books as adventurers, daredevils, or rebels. This new compilation of brief biographies features women throughout history who have risked their lives for adventure—many of whom you may not know, but all of whom you'll WANT to know, such as:

    Annie Edson Taylor, the first person who dared to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel

    Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman who dared to fly in space

    Helen Gibson, the first woman who dared to be a professional stunt person

    And many more! If you and your child enjoyed She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton, Little Dreamers, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls or Girls Think of Everything, you will love reading Women Who Dared.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781492653288
    Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels (Biography Books for Kids, Feminist Books for Girls)
    Author

    Linda Skeers

    Linda Skeers is the author of several critically acclaimed children’s books. She also teaches picture book writing workshops, including sessions on writing humor for kids. She lives in Iowa. Visit her at www.lindaskeers.com.

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      Book preview

      Women Who Dared - Linda Skeers

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      Copyright © 2017 by Linda Skeers

      Cover and internal design © 2017 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

      Cover and internal design by Jillian Rahn/Sourcebooks, Inc.

      Cover and internal illustrations © Livi Gosling

      Cover image/type © Gleb_Guralnyk/Thinkstock

      Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

      This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.—From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

      Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.

      P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567–4410

      (630) 961-3900

      Fax: (630) 961-2168

      sourcebooks.com

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

      Contents

      Front Cover

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Daredevils

      Anna Olga Albertina Brown

      Annie Edson Taylor

      Bessie Coleman

      Elinor Smith

      Florence Chadwick

      Georgia Tiny Broadwick

      Helen Gibson

      Lillian Boyer

      Lillian Leitzel

      Mary Lillian Ellison

      May Emmeline Wirth

      Mildred Burke

      Shirley Muldowney

      Sophie Blanchard

      Valentina Tereshkova

      Adventurers

      Ada Blackjack

      Barbara Hillary

      Beatrice Ayettey

      Emma Grandma Gatewood

      Dr. Eugenie Clark

      Fanny Bullock Workman

      Ferminia Sarras

      Ida Lewis

      Jeanne Baret

      Joan Bamford Fletcher

      Junko Tabei

      Libby Ribbles

      Lillian Riggs

      Margaret Bourke-White

      Mary Anning

      Mina Hubbard

      Rosaly Lopes

      Sylvia Earle

      Ynes Mexia

      Rebels

      Alia Muhammad Baker

      Annette Kellerman

      Annie Londonderry Cohen Kopchovsky

      Belle Boyd

      Bessie Stringfield

      Ella Hattan

      Irena Sendler

      Johanna July

      Kate Warne

      Keiko Fukuda

      Lyda Conley

      Margaret Molly Tobin Brown

      Mary Edwards Walker

      Mary Fields

      Minnie Spotted Wolf

      Rose Fortune

      Susan La Flesche Picotte

      Sybil Ludington

      Bibliography

      About The Author

      About The Illustrator

      Back Cover

      1858–1919(?) • Germany

      In the 1800s, circuses were a popular form of entertainment around the world. In 1858, two acrobats had a baby girl and named her Anna Olga Albertina Brown. It’s not surprising that she joined the family business. From a young age she was an accomplished trapeze artist, tightrope walker, and gymnast.

      Anna performed under the stage name Miss La La. She was tiny—under five feet tall. Although she looked like a child, she had the strength of a grown man—a very STRONG man. And that’s what set her apart from the other trapeze artists.

      Being biracial also gave her an air of mystery, which publicists capitalized on when they released stories about her background before her appearances. Rumors were rampant before performances. The more outlandish the story, the more tickets were sold.

      Anna’s act was astonishing and unique. She’d start out by hanging a hook with a dangling leather strap over a trapeze bar. She’d then bite down on the strap and hang there by her teeth—and spin!

      That was just the warm-up. She’d also hang by her knees from a trapeze bar while holding a leather strap connected to another trapeze bar in her teeth. But then, a child, a woman, and a man would hang on that trapeze bar!

      By that point the audience would be amazed by her poise and strength. But there was more to come. Much more.

      Anna would be lifted to the top of the circus tent, and with just one leg swung over a trapeze bar, this dainty acrobat in a ruffled skirt would hold three grown men aloft—one on each arm and one hanging onto a strap she held in her teeth.

      Her big finale was a booming success—literally. She would lift a cannon attached to a leather strap into the air with her teeth, and then it would be FIRED! She’d be flung back from the blast—still clenching the cannon—earning her the nickname Iron Jaw.

      When she was twenty-one, Anna was immortalized in a painting by the famous French impressionist artist Edgar Degas. He’d seen her perform several times in Montmarte, Paris, and wanted to capture her beauty, strength, and grace on canvas. The painting depicts her suspended from a rope attached to the roof of the circus tent—a rope she’s holding in her teeth. The oil painting, Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, hangs in the National Gallery in London. One art critic proclaimed it to be one of the artist’s finest works. It certainly portrays one of the finest, strongest, and bravest women the circus has ever known!

      1838–1921 • United States

      In 1901, in the small town of Bay City, Michigan, Civil War widow Annie Taylor was thinking about retiring. For years, she’d been giving dance and etiquette lessons to children. But as she got older, the students stopped coming. She had no savings and wasn’t interested in getting an ordinary job—she wanted fame and fortune!

      She just didn’t know how to get it.

      One evening, she was reading a newspaper article about all the tourists flocking to see Niagara Falls. She decided to show them something far more exciting than waterfalls, something never seen before—the first person to go over the falls in a barrel!

      An ordinary pickle barrel wouldn’t do, so Annie designed one herself. It was made of white oak and reinforced with iron bands. A blacksmith’s anvil was set in the bottom to keep the barrel upright. She would grip metal handles and be secured with leather straps.

      Annie was ready to take the plunge but wanted to make sure people were there to watch. For weeks, newspapers and posters advertised the fearless Mrs. Taylor and her daring, death-defying stunt.

      On October 24, 1901, on her sixty-third birthday, Annie rode to the falls in a carriage. Thousands had come out to witness the spectacle. She strapped herself in and crammed pillows around her. The barrel was sealed and fastened with screws.

      People gasped as the barrel tumbled and tossed its way closer to the edge. The roaring of the Falls drowned out the excited and terrified roaring of the crowd as Annie went over and down!

      At first, nothing could be seen in the swirling water. Then, Annie’s barrel bobbed to the surface!

      It floated to the shore, and workmen frantically sawed off the top of the barrel.

      Annie slowly crawled out. She was bruised and battered, but ALIVE! The first thing she said was, I prayed every second I was in the barrel except for a few seconds after the fall when I was unconscious.

      Annie may not have made the fortune she’d hoped for, but

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