This phenomenal children's book is #OwnVoices exceptionalism with Jamia Wilson weaving words to Andrea Pippins' vibrant illustrations, these black women provide readers with a diverse collection of international black trailblazers from such diverse areas as ballet, environmental activism, literature, boxing, sprinting, Arctic exploration, etc.

This book, as the authors point out, is written in the spirit of the song "to be young, gifted and black."

Not all the men and women in this book were young when they became famous. But, it is important to see that there are others who had dreams, before you, who succeeded.

And it may be that you have never heard of Matthew Henson, but he was an explorer who was the first African-American to trek in the Arctic, despite the fact that he didn't learn to read until 12, and found work on a merchant ship, where the ship's captain taught him. He was right along there with Admiral Perry when he went to explore the Arctic.

There are the usual people in there, of course, as well, such as Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver. But there is also Mo Farah, Kofi Annan and Jesse Owens. The time line spans the past and the present, including Simone Biles, the gymnast. This is also not limited to African-Americans, but Black people from all over the world. We have Oprah Winfrey next to Pelé. And each short bio has a quote. Nelson Mandela's "It always seems impossible, until it it's done"

This is a great book, that should be in every school and library. It will inspire, and delight. And show what has gone before.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

What I love the most about this is the way it incorporates the fun fonts, color, drawings and you can still read it so easily. The more fancier fonts incorporated into the story aren't overbearing so kids aren't struggling through this font or missing a lot if they have to skip it to move forward.

I love the expansion of not just Americans (which I thought this was going to be) listed here and not one particular job or success story. We have athletes, millionaires, singers, actors, chess players, author and activists, etc.

Fantastic to have in your library, especially, for any biography needs.

Though written for children, I wanted to read this to discover more people that are not usually included in the history books but nevertheless made a great impact on the world. This was an amazing introduction to 52 people, only about half of which I was already familiar with, accompanied by gorgeously bright illustrations done by Andrea Pippins. The illustrations brought the whole book to life and made the people really jump off the page. 

Though the amount of space given to each figure is limited and so not as in-depth as I would have liked, I understand that this is aimed at a much younger audience so I would definitely recommend to buy this for children in your life. It's something that I would love to have a physical copy of for my son when he's a little older. Overall this is an important read and I will definitely be doing some more reading about some of the people mentioned in here!

This book was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about these people and I learnt about some people who I never knew of and learnt more about those I knew already. I wish it was longer and I had a psychical copy!