LITTLE DREAMERS: Visionary Women Around the World written by Vashti Harrison is an interesting look at women and their contributions worldwide. The women featured are from all career areas and includes chemists, illustrators, designers, writers, physicists, inventors and computer programmers.
Asima Chatterjee, an organic chemist from India, developed an anti-epilepsy drug from a tiny plant by the name of the dwarf water clover. American costume designer and winner of eight Academy Awards, Edith Head, created stunning apparel for movie stars as well as for the women in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Ethnomusicologist Violeta Parra from Chile went into the countryside in search of folk music. She wrote down over 3,000 folk songs so they could be enjoyed by generations to come. And, Chinese microbiologist Flossie Wong-Staal and her team at the National Cancer Institute in the United States discovered that HIV was the cause of AIDS.
The 36 biographies are lively and concise and accompanied by charming illustrations that visually reveal who the women are and what they were busy thinking about, discovering, creating and inventing. For instance, sculptor and architect Maya Lin is shown standing in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C which she designed. The picture of Calypso Rose, the calypso singer from Tobago, is dressed in fancy clothes holding a microphone. All of the women have their eyes closed as if they are still dreaming.
LITTLE DREAMERS: Visionary Women Around the World written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison will engage readers 8-12 years of age and encourage them to read further and allow their imaginations to fly wider (Little, Brown and Company, 2018).
Questions for LITTLE DREAMERS: Visionary Women Around the World
In the back materials of this book, the author has placed a brief listing of 18 more possible little dreamers who could be interesting for you to know better. Look them over and select one of these women to research. Be sure to use all of the sources of information that the author used for her own research when she was writing this book: library books, the internet, movies, songs, and websites. Once you have completed your research write a profile of your little dreamer.
Each of the 36 little dreamers put forth in this book have the same face and expression except for skin color. Why do you think the author-illustrator kept the facial structures the same? Why do all of the women have their eyes closed? Which little dreamer’s clothing or costume sticks in your mind’s eye? Which background visually gave you the most facts about one of the visionary women?
Think about a background that would be appropriate and authentic for the profile you wrote. What colors, signs, symbols, and props would be best to include? Now, go ahead and draw a picture of a background to go with your profile. Use colored pencils or crayons. Have fun.
