This is a fantastic biographical book that needs to be in every library and elementary school. I consider myself fairly educated and read a lot about women, especially, the history makers, but I had never heard of most of these women! The stories of these women and their work needs to get into the hands of all children so that they can be inspired and informed.

A fantastic book to showcase the achievements of women within science and encourage an understanding of the diverse talent working within STEM fields, past and present. An excellent addition to any classroom.

Ohhhh. This was such a fun and beautiful book. I love any book that highlights strong women. Women in general. And a book highlighting women who transformed science is amazing. Women have been at the center of discoveries and are finally being acknowledged.

This is a simplistic look at female scientists throughout the ages. I think it would be a great starting point for young readers to learn more about these wonderful women who transformed the STEM field.

101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science by Claire Philip, 125 pages. Arcturus Publishing, 2020. $10.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Philip has compiled bios for 101 women who have influenced a number of science fields, from medicine to astronomy to math. These women come from all different countries and backgrounds. Do any of these women remind you of yourself or of who you want to be?
I feel like a lot of books about the amazing women of history have been published recently, and I was surprised to find that many of the women introduced by Philip were still unfamiliar to me. While this compilation is not as engaging as others I have read, I love that the women are organized chronologically because I was able to see the big picture of progression through the years. These women were able to build off the research of those who came before, and readers are encouraged to build off the knowledge of these women in turn.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

101 Women Who Transformed Science

My science loving 9 year old daughter loved this book! It’s amazing what the highlighted women in this book have done. I really liked that the women are all names that you don’t hear often and I’m glad my daughter can learn about them. It’s sad that their names and what they have done are not taught often in schools. I definitely enjoyed the knowledge I gained about these amazing women.
The illustrations are beautiful and the information about the women are written in an easy to understand way.

Thank you Netgalley & Arcturus Publishing for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science by Claire Philip

4.25 stars

The STEM field has a large hidden variety of women who have paved the way and made grand strands toward science. Most of these women are never mentioned in a science class and the only way you know about them is if you come across a movie, book, or news article (maybe a Buzzfeed or blogger list). I, personally am not a science or math inclined individual. I excelled at math when I was younger, but I progressively got older the subject and I didn’t always click well. Science has and never will be my foray. However, I greatly appreciate hearing stories and testimonies of the lives’ of scientists. Their lives have always fascinated me and I would much rather have glimpses into the person than only hearing about their discoveries, especially since most discoveries occur because of who they are as a person. This little illustrated book for young children is a great introductory resource if you have little ones who love science, math, animals or video games. This book covers a wide variety of scientists, mathematicians, and inventors. There is something for everyone and that makes this book so much fun. I’m definitely not the target demographic, but I teach high school students and I can see a lot of them enjoying this if it was in a classroom. I also encourage parents and family members to consider purchasing this book as a gift. The illustrations are excellent and the facts are not too complicated to understand. There is a glossary in the back for concepts they may not be familiar with as well.


Here is a list of some of my favorite women that I got to learn about (so many new ones I had never heard of before):
*Merit Ptah (first female doctor)
*Agnodice (doctor who pretended to be a man and changed gender laws)
*Trota of Salerno (medical scientist)
*Saint Hildegard of Bingen (polymath- prophetic nun who became the first German female physician)
*Catherine Charlotte de la Gardie (vaccination pioneer who stopped the last witch trial in Sweden- please someone make a film about this)
*Sarah Guppy (inventor- mainly bridges)
*Hertha Ayrton (inventor who created a fan that dispersed mustard gas in WWI)
*Regina Fleszarowa (geologist who hid Jews from Nazis and held secret meetings for librarians)
*Alice Augusta Ball (chemist who focused on curing leprosy)
*Maria Goeppert Mayer (physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project)
*Rachel Carson (marine biologist and advocate against pesticides)
*Joy Adamson (naturalist who worked with lion cubs and other African wildlife- she was murdered viciously and solved)
*Dorothy Johnson Vaughan (mathematical engineer, one of the ladies from Hidden Figures)
*Astrid Loken (entomologist and wartime spy who focused on bumblebees and the dopest woman in this whole book!)
*Joan Clarke (mathematician who also helped develop a decoding system that change the course of WWII)
*Kateryna Yuschenko (computer scientist and mathematician who writes awesome poetry)
*Mary Jackson (mathematician and the real MVP of being allowed the right to attend an all-white high school to get her engineering degree to work at NASA)
*Eugenie Clark (marine biologist who dived until she was 92)
*Dian Fossey (primatologist and conversation who worked with endangered gorillas; she was also tragically murdered by a colleague who has not been charged)
*Sally Ride (astronaut and advocate against wearing makeup in space because gender roles should not still be a thing)
*Mae Carol Jemison (first female African-American in space)
*Chieko Asakawa (computer scientist who lost her sight as a teen and made inventions for the visually impaired to help them access the web)

My one major critique is that there is a large portion of the book (in the middle) where there is barely information and the women’s stories are just glossed over and given only one page. Also, if you are worried about whether this book acknowledges violence, it does not. Two primate conversationalists were famously murdered and their deaths are regarded as “dying tragically”. However, besides that I would highly recommend this book to any girl who loves anything related to the STEM field or history.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.25

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: I love the cover for this one so much! It does a great job of highlighting the wonderful illustrations inside.

Thank you, Netgalley and Arcturus Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love learning even just a little bit about inspiring figures. This book consists of very brief profiles with the focus on the woman's contribution to her field. With just a page or two per person, you won't learn much. But if this book inspires a young person to learn more about even a single female scientist, especially one who has been previously overlooked, then it has served it's purpose.

4 stars!

An interesting look into the lives of female scientists and all they've done for the world.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

This is an amazing book for older girls who want to get into science. It shows that any girl can make it in the world of science. The language is age appropriate and is accompanied by small delightful illustrations. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Definitely a simplistic look at women scientists through the ages but I think it would be an excellent starting point for younger readers to start learning about some of these women. I like that it moves more or less in chronological order from ancient Egypt all the way up until today and I actually only knew about a handful of the women featured in this book so even as an adult I think I actually learned a lot here. Would definitely recommend for children and adults alike.

This is a fabulous resource showcasing women who had huge influences on STEM subjects. I think that girls will appreciate the women in this book as role models, and boys should learn that (although their names have often been neglected), women have made great contributions to science and will continue to do so.

I read a lot of these collected mini-biographies, especially ones focused on women, and typically ones meant for a middle-grade audience, so this was an obvious book for me to read. 101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science by Claire Philip surprised me in the best way, and I had a deep appreciation for it.

101 is a lot of people to look at, and the book manages to cover all 101 quickly but without feeling rushed. These short biographies make for a solid introduction to a broad variety of women in science, especially for younger readers who aren't sure where to start. I do wish a few of the especially short ones had been longer by a sentence or two, but overall the variety of lengths helped keep the pace moving for the younger audience. It's a type of book I enjoy and I read about women in STEM online regularly, so I was surprised to see that I only knew about half of the women in this book. I love reading a book like this that can toss so many new names my way, so it was genuinely thrilling to see that there were so many that I hadn't read about before. I also oddly appreciated seeing Marie Curie omitted because even though her career is iconic, it is so easy to learn about her elsewhere. The brief looks into specific branches of science and the roles women played within them made for an interesting and fun way to break the book up. The illustrations were cute and inviting and served their purpose.

I think my only solid complaint would be that I wished there had been more diversity of the women portrayed. While women from many types of STEM backgrounds were included, and they were from a broad variety of countries, there were areas I didn't think were adequately covered. There were no trans women, and the very few queer women present were not noted as such. The number of disabled women was extremely limited. The women of colour throughout the 20th century and into the present were represented fairly widely, but between the ancient ones and the ones operating in the early twentieth century, there weren't any. There was also only one indigenous woman featured.

101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science is a fun read, filled with a variety of faces, and is perfect for the average kid interested in learning more about science and scientists of the past and present. While some of the diversity is lacking, I would be most inclined to suggest additional books rather than alternative ones.

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

I always like seeing books that talk about women who's contributions to science have been overlooked. I thought this did a good job of giving quick explanations of many women who's names aren't commonly known and their work in a wide variety of scientific fields. The illustrations are very nice.

My only complaint was that between Merit Ptah in 2700-2650 BCE and Alice Augusta Ball in 1892 - 1916, every woman who got a full page biography was European.

A fabulously fun and fascinating snapshot into the lives of 101 inspirational STEM heroines whose discoveries, inventions and breakthroughs have changed the world as it is today. Spanning across centuries, countries and cultures, these trailblazing women – including Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman astronaut and Carol Shaw, the first female video game designer – and their captivating stories are brought to life through their biographies, quotations, facts and charming illustrations by Isabel Munoz.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an early copy of this book!

I absolutely adored this book. It really gripped me and I found every story of every single women’s interesting and inspiring. I would have loved to have read a book like this when I was younger.

The story’s and information were easy to digest and the illustrations were beautiful.

Definitely recommend this book to everyone of all ages as it shows how amazing women truly are.

I love that this book is full of so many little known scientists, and I think girls would LOVE reading about all of the amazing discoveries that were made by other women throughout history. This could also be a great starting point for research projects about female scientists!

I was given an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really great book for elementary aged kids. It would be the perfect gift for a girl who is interested in STEM subjects. It was great that they included so many different fields in this book. It made for a very diverse read.

I really enjoyed that so many different countries were represented, too. There were quite a few women who I had never heard of before picking up this book. I think that is amazing, and makes me want to have my 7 year old daughter read through it next.

My only real issue with the book was that the formatting seemed a bit inconsistent. By that I mean that some of the chapters included where the women were born, years they lived and died, where they went to school, etc. More or less a basic bio. However, not all of them did. I felt like that was odd. It would have been fairly easy to include those stats for each entry. That being said, it was noted that there were many women included who are still alive today. I found that to be very inspiring!

Overall I really enjoyed this book and think it would be a great way to introduce a young, budding scientist/ engineer/ astronaut/ video game programmer/ mathematician/ etc. to some potential new idols.

Fantastic read with lots of women I didn't know! I wish the book had been sorted a little better into categories but stull enjoyed it overall!
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for providing me an arc for an honest review!

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this book was informative and will be useful for many young girls looking for inspirational role models in the STEM fields. I did wish that the author would have made it more visually pleasing with real photographs and art. Overall a good book.