Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World by Susan Hood

I love Susan Hood and am a huge fan of her book Ada's Violin.  When I heard about the book Shaking Things Up and noticed that Susan Hood was the author, I could not wait to get a copy.  Well I finally got a copy and LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! Every detail is perfect. One of my new favorite books for sure.

There is so much about this book to love that I need to make a list!

The Cover- is amazing. I can't stop looking at it.  Illustrator Oge Mora created a purely brilliant and beautiful cover.

The Women--The 14 women profiled in this book are definitely extraordinary.  What I loved about the selection of women included was the variety. There were some women I knew and some whose impact I did not know. There were women who made an impact at different ages (as children and as adults) and they made a difference in a variety of ways.

The Illustrations--The fact that 13 women illustrators created this book together with Susan Hood made me happy. Some of my already favorite illustrators (Melissa Sweet, Sophie Blackall, LeUyen Pham) along with some new-to-me illustrators whose art captivated me (Oge Mora, Julie Morstad)

The Table of Contents--The introduction to this book starting with,  "Women and girls have been shaking thins up for a Lon time, resisting those would would box them in..." was perfection. This fabulous introductory paragraph is followed by a beautiful Table of Contents. You don't often find a TOC that is this beautifully designed.

The Timeline--Following the Table of Contents, the author gives us a timeline (another beautiful piece of this book) that gives us information about the women in the book.  A timeline that shows women have been chasing the world since the early 1780s!

The Poetry--Susan Hood has written an original poem about each on of the women. She uses a variety of forms and I am amazed at how much we learn about each woman from these poems. The poems are followed by a short blurb with some incredible info about the woman.

Quotes--Each illustration includes a quote by or about the woman illustrated. These are fabulous extras details.

Author's Note-- I loved this peek into the Susan Hood's thinking.

Sources--At the end of the book, Susan Hood gives us a list of resources for readers.  She gives us some fabulous books and websites for each of the women she wrote about.  It is a fabulous list (and it is also beautiful).

The Cover Under the Jacket--You'll have to get your own copy to look at this!

This book is truly incredible. It is a must-read, must-have, must-revisit kind of book.  It is perfection!


(Shaking Things Up was one of the books that Olivia of @Livbits recommended for our blog booklist in December. You can hear more about why she loves this book in her new video!)

Shaking Things Up by Susan Hood Will Give You Heartbeeps ❤️ from TheLivBits on Vimeo.