While I had never heard of Simone de Beauvoir before seeing this title on Netgalley, I can now see why Isabel Sanchez Vegara felt drawn to educate young minds about her life and work. Simone is a wonderful role model for developing minds, both male and female. Simone was an independent woman who did not allow society's view of and limitations on women to control her dreams or the lengths she went to achieve them. I would definitely recommend this book to all.

A wonderful book aimed at younger elementary school children. The book itself is 32 pages with wonderful illustrations and simple text. Children can learn about Simone de Beauvoir's early life and how she had “feminist” ideas before the term was even invented. As the book explains, she was a revolutionary and surrounded herself with others like her who were trying to change the world. A great biography to encourage young minds.

I wish I had a little girl so that I could give her this book! It's a story of independence, openness, intelligence, gender freedom, and being strong-minded even when very young. Also the illustrations are lovely.

The Little People, Big Dreams series from Quarto Publishing has released a children's introduction to the feminist and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. The book does not delve extremely deep into her beliefs or works, but acts as a brief look for children into a figure many feel is the mother of the feminist movement. 

Little People, Big Dreams: Simone de Beauvoir goes through her childhood, as well as her relationship with Jean Paul Sartre. It briefly touches on the fact that her initial works saying women should be free to make their own decisions came across as scandalous in France after World War II. 

The book is written by Isabel Sanchez Vergara and lovingly illustrated by Christine Roussey. 

Little People, Big Dreams: Simone de Beauvoir is a must read for independent young girls who want to learn about written words that changed the world for women.

The Little People Big Dreams series is one I love for non-fiction texts to fill my shelves. They tell many stories of underrepresented people and voices.
Simone de Beauvoir told the story of a woman who balanced a thirst for knowledge, love and independence in a way that inspired and encouraged readers. It will certainly be added to my shelves next month.

Having now read a few of the very short picture biographies for young children in the Little People Big Dreams series, I’ve concluded that I like the idea of the collection a lot more than the actual books. For one thing, based on what I’ve seen, the illustrations are mostly substandard—the cartoonish characters all have extremely large heads (maybe a girl requires an overly large brain box in which to concoct and accommodate her big dreams) as well as some bizarrely rendered physical features: Georgia O’Keeffe, the iconic artist, has mouse ears, and Harriet Tubman, the heroic Underground Railroad conductor, a koala-bear nose. As for the actual biographies of the famous females: They are little more than sketches. So many of the details and struggles in the lives of the selected subjects are not quite suitable for little ears. The stories end up being so watered down that the drama and significance of their lives are largely lost. In spite of all this, when I saw Simone de Beauvoir’s story on offer on the Net Galley website, I was genuinely curious. I don’t think I’d ever consider presenting the story of the French feminist, intellectual, political activist, and companion of Jean-Paul Sartre to the very young. How would it be managed?

Adequately enough, it turns out. Author Isabel Sanchez Vegara presents the basic details of de Beauvoir’s initially comfortable, bourgeois Parisian childhood quite well. The family had been very wealthy for a time, but fortunes apparently changed overnight. The servants were let go, and Simone’s mother was suddenly burdened with all the domestic duties while M. de Beauvoir sat around on his derrière—or so it is intimated. This apparently got the young Simone thinking, as did her father’s observation that she “had the brain of a man.” Why was a boy’s mind any different from a girl’s? she wondered, Simone, the author writes, “had become a feminist before the word even existed,” which is simply not true. In actual fact, the word “feminism” entered the English language in 1851. It came to mean “advocating for women’s rights” sometime between 1890-1895, over a decade before de Beauvoir was born in 1908.

According to Vegara’s telling, de Beauvoir’s father was pivotal in his daughter’s intellectual development. He shared books with her, and encouraged her to read and write. He is also said to have wanted his daughters to be educated so that they could support themselves and be independent. (It’s a long time since I read de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, but M. de Beauvoir being quite this progressive strains credibility. I’ve read elsewhere that if he’d actually had the money for dowries, his enlightened views would have been nowhere in evidence.) Simone’s parents scraped together the money to send her and her younger sister to a good convent school, where, at the age of 14, she would begin to wonder if there really was a God.

In dealing with de Beauvoir’s life from her teens onward, Vegara is understandably superficial. She mentions that Simone studied philosophy, which is about “finding new ways of thinking.” That’s not a wrong definition of philosophy, exactly, but it isn’t the way I’d explain the word to young children. De Beauvoir’s first meeting with Jean-Paul Sartre, her “soul” and “mind” mate is mentioned, and the course of their unconventional (open, non-monogamous) relationship quite cleverly sanitized as follows: “Simone and Jean-Paul never married or lived under the same roof, but they lived their love story in their own unique way.” De Beauvoir’s first novel is discussed in a similarly indirect and understated manner. We are told the book caused a scandal. (Yes, thinks the adult reader, because it was based on her and Sartre’s ménage a trois with one of de Beauvoir’s students, a younger Ukrainian woman, Olga Kosakiewicz, who later stated that her "trio" relationship with the two philosophers damaged her psychologically.)

The author winds down her narrative with allusions to de Beauvoir’s travels (she and Sartre—with his characteristically wonky, strabismic right eye—are pictured sitting primly in the company of Che Guevara) and her inspirational feminist status. However, Vegara’s conclusion is oversimplified, poorly worded, and, well, just not quite right: “thanks to little Simone, we now know we aren’t born men and women—just special human beings with a life full of choices to make.” Current gender politics aside, most of us <i>are</i> born with male or female bodies, and living in those bodies does affect us and impact our choices. I think de Beauvoir would have agreed.

Writing a book about an influential French intellectual was certainly an ambitious project for Vegara. The text isn’t a total dud, but the extremely childish, scribbly illustrations, apparently done in pencil crayon, do not elevate the final product in any way. I read this out of curiosity. I am not impressed enough to recommend it.

This another is another in this series of beautiful biographies of famous women for children. This book has gorgeous illustrations and is a wonderful book to read to or along with children.

Beautiful illustrations, but lacking in informative text, this brief story about Simone dentist Beauvior leaves the reading wanting more. Even the endpages didn't provide a list of her works, or resources for further research.

In this series, María Isabel Sánchez Vegara charts the lives of incredible women throughout history from their start as just young children with big dreams, to people who changed the world. Honestly, it is wonderful - we need to show children that they can follow in these people’s footsteps; that they can reach for the stars and become whoever they want to be. And, Simone de Beauvoir, as a pioneer of early feminism and the author of the book that has gone on to form the foundation of contemporary feminist thought, is someone who children everywhere, especially young girls, need to be aware of. She was a trailblazer, a pioneer, a groundbreaker. No matter what we think of her views and her actions now, she was one of the first people to push women down towards a path of realisation, and who made the very idea of having dreams as a female, slightly more plausible.
Read it for your children, read it for yourself - just read it and be inspired.

This is the second Little People Book I have read and I am now a big fan. I like the message this book sends that no matter what and what the times around you are you can achieve your dreams and become whatever you want. Simone de Beauvoir was a French author. She grew up in luxury and unfortunately it was lost during the war. Even so her parents sent her to a private school. Her father wanted her to learn to earn a living without relying on a man. She met and became soul mates with John Paul Satre, and though they never married they were together in mind and spirit. Simone went on to become the youngest woman to pass the exams on philosophy. She became a writer and philosopher. I also love the illustrations in these books they are fun and there is always something to see. I recommend this book for ages 5+.
I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

We love these books, clear quirky artwork, lovely well written text, what's not to like? Why not have a bedtime story that teaches you about the world too.

I love the artwork on the page with Simone and Jean-Paul in different flats...

This charmingly illustrated entry in a wonderful series tells the story of Simone de Beauvoir, an early and great feminist thinker. As always in the books by Vegara, a young girl's story is simply and appealingly told.

Simone began life in a wealthy Parisian family whose fortunes changed. As a result, Simone would not have sufficient money for a wedding dowry, but she did get an excellent education. Simone's academic and writing lives are emphasized and the reader also meets the love of her (nontraditional) life), Jean-Paul Sartre.

Favorite quotes from the book:

"Simone thought this was unfair. She had become a feminist before the word even existed!"

"He was not just her soul mate, he was her mind mate, too!"

"And thanks to little Simone, we now know that we're not born men or women-just special human beings with a life full of choices to make."

This book is a lovely reminder of the importance of girls growing up to be women who are free to make choices. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

This wasn't my favorite book in the series, but I did still enjoy it. The author did a good job of sending a message about gender at the end, but I did feel that Simone's story was told in a slightly choppy manner that made it feel incomplete

The latest in the children’s series featuring introductions to famous women, this entry teaches about a lady whose name is more familiar than her accomplishments.
There’s an interesting dichotomy to her father, wherein he’s very progressive in wanting his daughter to have an education and get a job, but apparently it was all because he was lazy.
“Mind-mate” as well as soulmate. Nice. She didn’t marry that more-famous philosopher, which must have been shocking at the time but is a perfect example of her philosophy.
For those who have read the previous books in this series, it’s easy to notice this is done in a different art style. Everyone’s always smiling, except when her book comes out.
I guess as an introduction it’s okay, and it certainly peaks interest in learning more. “Mother of Feminism” is a nice touch. But I felt there could have been a little more here.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

This is an interesting and fun way to learn about the life and times of an extraordinary woman. I hope to see the stories of more such woman brought to life in this format.

Simone de Beauvoir is a new young reader book in the series Little People, Big Dreams. Written by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara and illustrated by Christine Roussey, it was released 2nd Oct, 2018 by Quarto publishing Frances Lincoln imprint. Aimed at younger readers, it's 32 pages, perfect for a storytime or classroom circle read. It's available in ebook and hardcover formats.

This series is really amazing for its accessibility and charm. These are profoundly important people who have lived through and experienced deeply difficult lives while affecting billions of people past and present. How do you take hugely important peoples' biographies and condense them down into a digestible and appealing format for very young children (and their caregivers)? I wouldn't have the first glimmer of a clue where to even start. The author of the books starts at the subjects' childhoods and moves on to their later lives and experiences.

This particular book and the artist's finesse with settings and postures/expressions is pure charm. Her drawings of Sartre were instantly recognizable and adorable (I giggled out loud) but still managed to convey respect for the subject. Major kudos.

I really love all of these books I've read and reviewed and recommend this one unreservedly. In addition to the biography, there is a short additional bibliography/suggested reading list included at the end of the book.

Lovely book! Five stars

Simone de Beauvoir is a nonfiction story about a French philosopher and activist who was known for being one of the first in what we would consider our strides towards modern feminism. It's a fine little story with a few facts about her life—I appreciated especially the explanation that she never married or lived together with her significant other, but this didn't make their relationship any less special—there's just nothing noteworthy about the book or the artwork.

Would I add it to my son's library? No.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really liked this book and how it shines a spotlight on yet another important, though slightly controversial, figure like Simone de Beauvoir.
It can't have been easy to bring her life's story down to a level that is appropriate and understandable for little children. I think the author did a great job at a challenging task, though I would have liked there to have been a bit more focus on her feminism and a better explanation of why her books and point of view were so groundbreaking and thought-provoking for society at that time.

The drawings are adorable and exude a whimsy and innocence that is very appealing to children and adults alike. I love that the illustrations seem somewhat unfinished at times, like a typical (though talented) child's drawing, with parts of the figures and background seemingly colored in with bright crayons and other parts just decorated with simple lines in a thin black marker.

I love the Little People, Big Dreams series! It's inspired and necessary, even in this day and age.

I love this story of a little girl with a big mind. Even though she knew that she didn't need a man, she found one who "...was not just her soul mate, he was her mind mate, too!"
Yeah, my heart is melting. They didn't marry but had their own love story.

What a powerful story of a young girl who grew into a thoughtful woman.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another fantastic book in this series with an incredibly powerful message that has been put simply for children to understand. Lovely illustrations too