Brazen

Starred review from February 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up-French cartoonist Bagieu (Exquisite Corpse; California Dreamin') offers 29 compelling biographies of renowned female artists, scientists, athletes, explorers, activists, and warriors. While much-profiled women such as reporter Nellie Bly and astronaut Mae Jemison appear here, so do less recognized names, including pioneering gynecologist Agnodice (active around 350 BCE in Athens); Christine Jorgensen, one of the first people from the United States to receive gender reassignment surgery; Liberian social worker Leymah Gbowee; and Syrian aristocrat-turned-activist Naziq al-Abid. Each entry covers the subject's life from birth to period of activity and, where applicable, death, across about six pages of delicately drawn panels with colorful highlights and washes. The work features humorously anachronistic props, such as modern books, as well as accurate depictions (smoking, drinking). The minimal dialogue is largely invented; declarations and thoughts are couched in distinctly 21st-century argot. The women range in age from girls to older adults at their high points of recognition and are geographically diverse. There are no source notes, but there's enough information, including dates, national origin, and married as well as birth surnames, to spur curious teens to seek out more details. VERDICT A strikingly original collective biography for casual readers, students, and those looking for inspiration in their own lives.-Francisca Goldsmith, Library Ronin, Worcester, MA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 15, 2018
Story collections about famous women often include figures like Joan of Arc and Florence Nightingale. Bagieu (California Dreamin’) goes further afield, creating short graphic biographies about inspiring women from many unexpected times and places, such as Las Mariposas, sisters from the Dominican Republic who worked to overthrow dictator Rafael Trujillo; Katia Krafft, who fought to be recognized as a volcanologist; and Leyah Gbowee, an organizer whose part in ending the civil war in Liberia won her the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. (“How about a drink?” Liberian negotiators say to Gbowee. “I don’t drink with murderers,” she snaps.) Bagieu’s writing is sly and understated, and her panels combine impish comedy with unexpected moments of sensuousness. The women in these biographies pursue political freedom, love, artistic fulfillment, and—sometimes—the joy of their own bodies: Peggy Guggenheim mourns the death of her lover John Holms “on the shoulders of (lots of) new lovers.” Any one of these stories would make a rousing picture book biography; 29 of them in one volume produces a work whose energy and wit will spur readers to get going and change the world. Ages 14–up.

July 1, 2018
French artist Bagieu's brief vignettes of sequential comics art expose readers to brazen women of all fields, times, and places, both famous and little-known. Each entry gives just enough information about each heroine to know who she was and why she was important; many readers will dig deeper from here. Occasional humor makes even the most tragic stories approachable.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from February 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Step aside Susan B. Anthony and Joan of Arc! French graphic novelist Bagieu's (California Dreamin', 2017) latest turns standard feminist anthology fare on its head, introducing 29 lesser-known ladies of various backgrounds, time periods, skin colors, and sexualities. Kicking off with Clementine Delait, a beloved bearded lady in early twentieth-century France, and concluding with Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, Bagieu's vivacious collection spotlights rebels such as Las Mariposas (revolutionary sisters!), Sonita Alizadeh (Afghan rapper!), and Nobel Peace Prize-winning Leymah Gbowee (Liberian activist!) along the way. Bagieu's writing is clever and concise, and panels brim with sly subtleties; Bagieu delivers laugh-out-loud one-liners in bitsy speech bubbles, and summons tragedy with no words at all, and her fine-lined figures are by turns playfully expressive, fierce, and reverent. Additionally, each profile employs its own distinct color palette; Bagieu's segment on Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson, for example, heavily features the bold blues, greens, yellows, and reds of Jansson's signature Moomin comics. Bagieu's dedication to Syrian activist Naziq al-Abid folds in the colors of the country's flag. This dynamic paean to women's flair for fearless resistance will have readers happily sifting through historyand tackling the future with renewed verve. Rock on, ladies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2018
This French graphic novel offers a satisfying collection of minibiographies about bold women--some contemporary, others from centuries ago--who overcame fearsome odds to achieve a variety of goals, becoming the first black woman in space, a rapper in Afghanistan, a pioneering volcanologist, and more.The lives of 33 women of varying geographical, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds are highlighted in about 10 pages each of colorful, expressive, and often humorous cartoon panels--enough to serve as a catalyst for learning more. Some names are relatively recognizable, such as Temple Grandin and Nellie Bly, while others may be less so, such as Las Mariposas, Dominican sisters who became revolutionaries and human rights activists; Naziq al-Abid, a Syrian humanitarian and feminist; Agnodice, a fourth-century B.C.E. Athenian who disguised herself as a man in order to practice gynecology; and Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian social worker who escaped an abusive marriage and assisted other female survivors of violence. Bagieu delivers a piece de resistance that succinctly summarizes the obstacles and victories of these daring women.Insightful and clever, at times infuriating and disheartening, this serves as a reminder that the hardships women face today have been shared--and overcome--by many others. (Graphic collective biography. 14-18)

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