A is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World

A is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World is a good idea wrongly packaged. Though alphabet books are often among the first books introduced to young children, the contents of A is for Awesome are much too sophisticated for the publisher’s/distributor’s suggested audience of one to three-year-olds. At the same time, its physical format, a board book, would be perceived as being simply too babyish by those who might appreciate its contents, children in elementary school.

Each letter of the alphabet, with the exception of three, are treated on a single page. As can be seen in the above excerpt, the focal letter of the alphabet is presented only in upper case, and it then usually appears as the first letter in the example woman’s given name. A single sentence attempts to serve to “identify” the person’s significance. As well, most entries also include an “inspirational” quote from the highlighted person.

The book’s subtitle established a pretty high bar for inclusion - women who are icons and world changers. Undoubtedly adults who share this book with children will likely question some/many of Eva Chen’s choices. Most themed alphabet books pose challenges for their creators who must find examples for each letter of the alphabet, and A is for Awesome has some awkward entries, with perhaps “V is for VENUS, Roman goddess of love, beauty, and victory” being the weakest. However, Q’s Queen Elizabeth I and W’s Wu Zetian would not likely be thought of as icons by most. Some of Chen’s examples are contemporary, such as Malalia and Oprah, while others are historical, including Harriet Tubman, Emmeline Pankhurst and Sacagawea. Figures from the field of entertainment and fashion appear, women like Beyoncé , Tina Turner, and Pat McGrath, as do women from the arts and sciences, such as author Ursula K. Le Guin, artist Georgia O’Keeffe and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin.

The English alphabet contains 26 letters, but the book’s subtitle speaks of 23 women. What happened to the other three letters? Those letters, X, Y and Z, are disappointingly dealt with in the book’s last pair of facing pages where the text on the recto reads:

... and X, Y, and Z are for
EXTRAORDINARY YOU,
and the ZILLIONS of brilliant
brave adventures you will have.

Facing the text is a mirrored surface in which the child reader/listener can see her/himself as an “extraordinary you”. Cute, but a cop-out.

Though adults may be familiar with some of the book’s 23 women, most of these icons and world-changers identified by Chen will be entirely unknown to an audience of elementary school students who then may (or may not) do the necessary post-reading research to confirm the 23 entries’ bona fides.

Though the contents of A is for Awesome present a number of problems, one of the book’s strengths is Derek Desierto’s artwork, engaging cartoon-like portraits of the book’s subjects. A Vancouver-based artist, Desierto says that, in terms of media, “It’s a mix! Some textures I painted, some are from photographs and all done in photoshop. Totally a collage/mid century cartoon style.”