It’s International Women’s Day and I, a woman, am trying to write my dissertation. I can’t look my supervisor in the face if I don’t. I can’t look my daughter in the face if I don’t.
But I can’t look myself in the face if I don’t, on this day, acknowledge the huge debt the book world owes women creators of books (authors, illustrators, editors, designers, publishers, etc., etc.) which teach our own young women to be strong women and so to change the world.
So I’m just going to set my timer for five minutes– there I go– to say: THANK YOU to all of the women out there creating the books I give my daughter and other young women. And I’m going to just rattle off some names of women book people whom I love to share– and I’m going to ask you to add your own names in the comments, or feel free to recommend them to me by email!
Here’s my list, in no particular order: Shirley Hughes, Diana Wynne Jones, Joan Aiken, Micha Archer, Rebecca Green, Liz Wong, Lesléa Newman, Diane Adams, Claire Kean, Hilary McKay, Judith Rossell, Janet Ahlberg, Nancy Cohen, Joanne Schwartz, Cynthia Rylant, Catherynne Valente, Eleanor Farjeon, and Ursula Le Guin.
That’s a deliberate mishmashmixture! Browse the site for those names and more and share yours with me! Let’s get inspired to write for a new generation of women!
And now my timer rang, so, for International Women’s Day, I will do my own work as well as I can. As women do.
The Children's Bookroom 