3 2 1 Awesome!: 20 Fearless Women Who Dared to Be Different

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Synopsis

Teach your little ones to count down from number twenty to number one, while learning about iconic and inspiring women like Temple Grandin, Shirley Chisholm, Florence Nightingale, and Billie Jean King. The story ends with a call to action for "the 1 and only you!" that just might embolden the next generation of budding feminists to change the world, too.

Review

3 2 1 Awesome! is a children's picture book in Eva Chen's Awesome! series of educational stories that feature inspiring women. Juno Valentine, a character from another book series by the same author, makes a brief appearance at the beginning as well. The book starts at number twenty and counts down to number one. Along the way, kids will learn about these notable women through a number that was significant to their lives and/or accomplishments. Eg. Ada Lovelace was 17 when she created the first computer algorithm or Greta Thunberg was in the 9th grade when she first protested to raise awareness of climate change. They'll also learn about other women, including Sonia Sotomayor, Dolly Parton, Rosa Parks, Rihanna, and many more. Each page gives a brief explanation of who that person is/was and their contributions to the world, and most pages also feature a brief quote from the person.

As a grandparent with a young granddaughter who's very spirited, I'm always looking for books with strong female role models to share with her and just like its predecessor, A Is for Awesome!, this one definitely fits the bill, while also teaching kids their numbers. It features an interesting and diverse group of women from all walks of life that should be inspiring to girls of all ages and backgrounds. (As a person who is on the autism spectrum, I was thrilled with the inclusion of not just one, but two autistic women.) Then it's capped off with "the 1 and only you," celebrating the child who's reading it and encouraging them to go out and change the world, too. The text is accompanied by fun cartoon renderings of the women discussed that should delight little readers. Right now, the print version of the book appears to only be available as a board book, which typically means that it's aimed at the littlest readers. It's certainly appropriate for infants and preschoolers, but I think that even early elementary age kids could glean something from its pages. There were a few of the women that I didn't even know, and since the book only gives the barest amount of information about each one, it could create a jumping off point for older readers to further research or read about any of the women that catch their interest. I recommend the book for parents who are looking for empowering learning books for their little ones.

Note: One of the women included in the book is J. K. Rowling, which I wanted to mention for those readers who might want to skip the book because of this. While I don't support Rowling's viewpoint, this book was published in 2020, the same year that her transphobic crusade really started to penetrate the collective consciousness, so I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt that perhaps she wasn't aware of it yet when she wrote this book. For that reason and because so many other wonderful women are celebrated within its pages, I decided not to dock the rating.

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Eva Chen @ GoodReads

Derek Desierto