Women Writers: Hidden in History

Women Writers: Hidden in History is part of Crabtree’s new series, “Hidden History”. The six books in the series are written by four different writers but have a consistent format and presentation. Organized into chapters by geographic locations – Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa, only one of the books in the series specifically includes Australia.

Women Writers includes a double page spread about Yukon storyteller Angela Sidney, accompanied by a photograph of the Aurora Borealis in the sky over Whitehorse.

Rewarded for her work
In 1986, Angela Sidney became the first Indigenous person from the Yukon to receive the Order of Canada, the second highest honor in the country. She was given the award because of her incredible work in keeping her people’s stories and history alive.” (p. 37)

Each book begins with a chapter titled “History’s Hidden Heroines” that gives context to the particular group of women featured in the book and explains why we don’t know more about women’s achievements.

Before the 20th century, most of the writers studied in classrooms were men. The message was loud and clear: men’s writing was the writing worth studying and women’s writing should be ignored. By the 1900s, things began to change and women writers finally began to get their dues. (p. 4)

Women Writers also includes women from a broad range of time periods. For example, Aemilia Lanyer born in 1569 London may have actually published under the name William Shakespeare. A woman, known only as Murasaki Shikibu, born around 793 CE in Japan, may have written the world’s first novel, The Tale of the Genji. Modern-day writer, Neshani Andreas wrote about “ordinary life for rural Namibian women and shared how they spent their days”. (p. 45)

The information in Women Writers is presented in bite-size chunks with simple graphic illustrations likely to remind students of graphic novels. The text is also supported by numerous black and white and coloured reproductions of art and historic and current photos.

There is a short glossary, an index and a list of additional resources “about women who broke the rules and changed the world”. One suggested website invites students to sign up for a 30-day novel writing challenge.

Visit this site to sign up for the NaNoWriMo 30-day novel writing challenge. You can either sign up on your own or ask your teacher to enter your class: https://ywp.nanowrimo.org

Women Writers provides a rich wealth of information that will inform and may inspire students to consider a writing career for themselves.