NO GIRLS ALLOWED

This collective biography in graphic form depicts the lives of seven women from a range of eras and cultures who each reached the conclusion that they could only attain their goals by posing as men. Featuring both historical figures that may be recognizable to kids (Ellen Craft, Mu Lan) and those more obscure (Hatshepsut, Alfhild), the collection offers a succinct overview of each. Early on, a pedantic tone is established that seems at odds with the graphic format and distances readers by telling them rather than allowing them to experience these stories (“Hatshepsut slowly transformed her public image”). Readers with particular interest in women’s history, however, will find that Hughes’s simple language and Dawson’s clean, black-and-white ink drawings steer the work in the same no-nonsense direction and do an adequate job of presenting this uniquely themed offering. Source notes are not included, though there is a short list of further reading and a largely superfluous afterword. (Graphic biography. 8-12)