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A review by biblioghost
Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves, & Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen, Rebecca Guay
3.0
Hailee Christman
Yolen, J., & Stemple, H. (2013). Bad girls: Sirens, jezebels, murderesses, thieves and other female villains. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Biography
Selection process: Booklist, starred review, February, 2013. Retrieved from Booklistonline.com
In Bad Girls, mother and daughter team Yolen and Stemple collect a biography of some of history’s most notorious female villains. Starting the collection in Biblical times with Delilah in 110 BCE and Salome in 17 CE among them and continuing through history with some of the most well-known “bad girls”. Did Lizzie Borden really murder her family with an ax? Did Elizabeth Bathory bathe in the blood of the girls that she killed? Each chapter is ended with a comic strip of the authors in their research process debating whether or not the “bad girls” were really bad. They present questions to ponder, but ultimately allow the reader to form their own opinions on the subject’s guilt or innocence. Illustrator Guay’s full page portraits prefacing each chapter are beautifully done and the thick, glossy paper is welcome. While the subject matter is highly appealing and will draw readers in, the brief biographies of these twenty-six ladies will leave readers with more curiosity than knowledge of the subject. Some of the women mentioned in the book are not as well but the chapters range from only a page and a half to three or four, making a quick read with not much substance. Those interested in the content will want to do further research on the villains that interest them for more extensive biographies, especially since the back matter contains only a conclusion and a bibliography.
Recommended for reluctant readers.
Yolen, J., & Stemple, H. (2013). Bad girls: Sirens, jezebels, murderesses, thieves and other female villains. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Biography
Selection process: Booklist, starred review, February, 2013. Retrieved from Booklistonline.com
In Bad Girls, mother and daughter team Yolen and Stemple collect a biography of some of history’s most notorious female villains. Starting the collection in Biblical times with Delilah in 110 BCE and Salome in 17 CE among them and continuing through history with some of the most well-known “bad girls”. Did Lizzie Borden really murder her family with an ax? Did Elizabeth Bathory bathe in the blood of the girls that she killed? Each chapter is ended with a comic strip of the authors in their research process debating whether or not the “bad girls” were really bad. They present questions to ponder, but ultimately allow the reader to form their own opinions on the subject’s guilt or innocence. Illustrator Guay’s full page portraits prefacing each chapter are beautifully done and the thick, glossy paper is welcome. While the subject matter is highly appealing and will draw readers in, the brief biographies of these twenty-six ladies will leave readers with more curiosity than knowledge of the subject. Some of the women mentioned in the book are not as well but the chapters range from only a page and a half to three or four, making a quick read with not much substance. Those interested in the content will want to do further research on the villains that interest them for more extensive biographies, especially since the back matter contains only a conclusion and a bibliography.
Recommended for reluctant readers.