Three cheers for fierce female role models! Francesca Cavillo and Elena Favilli’s latest collection of kick-ass stories is fit to bursting with yet more super women. Only they’re not the stuff of fairy tales or comic books, they’re real ladies like me and you. Giving Cinderella a run for her money, this epic retelling of over 100 women’s lives and achievements is far more likely to inspire the next generation to dream big than a glass slipper (sorry Prince Charming, not this time).
Revolutionaries. Composers. Neuropsychologists. Pirates. Mayors. Business tycoons. Ice Divers. These are just a handful of the fearless, compassionate and brave women that make up Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2. Each story is as unique and inspirational as the last, made even more moving by the sheer breadth of female accomplishment demonstrated throughout the collection. Empowering young readers - and fully grown ones for that matter - to believe in their own ability and ambition, the book is testament to the fact that women can and will do whatever they set their mind to… even if the odds are stacked against them like 21-year-old quadruple amputee and champion fencer, Beatrice Vio.
Like Beatrice, the names you didn’t know before will stick with you the most, and you’ll wonder why we haven’t heard of these women and why there aren’t more books written about them. Without Francesca Cavillo and Elena Favilli, we might never have come across these wonderful, awe-inspiring women. And really, that’s their mission. Children shouldn’t be fed the same stereotypical, white-washed, heterosexual examples time and time again (we’re looking at you, Disney). It’s dangerous and limiting. If stories can change the way we think, they can definitely change the world and this collection is a big step in the right direction, inspiring rebel girls everywhere challenge perceptions and carve out a bigger, better future for themselves.
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2 by Francesca Cavillo and Elena Favilli. Timbuktu, 2018.