He included Alfhild, a Viking princess turned pirate and the real life inspiration for the novel I’m writing!.

The author worked on my favorite animated movie – How to Train Your Dragon and helped bring one of my favorite characters, Astrid, to life! (the cake topper for my wedding was even Astrid & Hiccup!).The biggest selling point of this particular book for me is two fold: Like I mentioned in my previous review of Wonder Women, I love books that are compendiums of stories about different women who have done awe-inspiring things. It is the birthright of every woman to have a connection to that history.Ĭlick on this graphic to explore the book page on LibraryThing! Review The girls of today are the latest links in a long chain of geniuses, warriors, and fearless women. Women have always played a key, kick-ass role in revolutionizing our world. In a time when women are still pushing for equal pay and equal opportunity, shouldn’t we be putting brave women like Sybil Ludington, Hatshepsut, Nzinga Mbande, Josephine Baker, Khutulun, Rani Lakshmibai, Harriet Tubman, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Joan of Arc on equal footing with Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty? These women were rebels and rulers, pioneers in their fields, and fighters for their causes (and sometimes for themselves). Yes, there are a few princesses, but there are also pirates, spies, journalists, activists, concubines, empresses, ninjas, pilots, samurais, mathematicians, sword-slingers, and warlords too. Gathering together a diverse set of some famous, some infamous, some forgotten, and some virtually unknown figures from history and myth, from all over the globe, this book presents the female role models we never knew we needed. In this fully illustrated, deeply researched, and totally entertaining collection, Jason Porath offers 100 women too uncompromising, too untoward, or too uncomfortable to fit the modern princess mold. Rejected Princesses is here to provide an alternative to that.

In place of complex, real-life heroines, we get sparkly, doe-eyed animated damsels who dominate children’s minds everywhere. This is just the list of women we know about. And even when we learn about a true legend – say, Harriet Tubman – we get half the story (and it’s usually not the half about her as a plantation-torching Union spy-master). Let’s face it: the list of historical women we learn about in school is lacking. I chimed in by saying they could hold off deciding for a few days, because it was coming home with me! Then again, pretty much any book that comes into the store screaming “female badassery” comes home with me before too long! Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Hereticsīack in October, when this beautiful tome arrived at the bookstore, my coworkers were debating where it should be shelved.

Rejected princesses by jason porath