Rise: A Feminist Book Project, formerly known as the Amelia Bloomer Project and compiled by the American Library Association, is an annual list of books with significant feminist content that are intended for readers from birth to age 18.[1][2] The Amelia Bloomer Project was started in 2002 and continued annually until the name change in 2020. Rise is unique from other book lists in that it selects books based on content.[3]
Researchers, librarians, and educators have used the list to recognize and select books with feminist content for young people.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations]
History
The American Library Association's Feminist Task Force (FTF) of the Social Responsibilities Round Table initiated an annual curation of the top feminist books in 2002 to promote "quality feminist literature for young readers".[12] The FTF chose to name the project after Amelia Bloomer, "an American writer and newspaper editor who campaigned for temperance, women's rights, and dress reform."[3]
In 2020, the FTF decided to rename the annual book list to Rise: A Feminist Book Project. The name change came after the FTF learned that Amelia Bloomer "refused to speak against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850".[12] The committee stated that "librarians and libraries must work to correct social problems and inequities with particular attention to intersectionality, feminism, and deliberate anti-racism".[12] This belief prompted the 2020 name change.
Criteria
The judges consider both fiction and nonfictional, as well as illustrated books that have been published in the previous 18 months.[1]
Every year, books are judged based on three main criteria:[1]
- Significant feminist content
- Directed toward readers between ages 0 to 18
- Literary and artistic merit
The books selected for the project fall into six categories based on target audience and genre: Early Readers Fiction and Nonfiction, Middle Grade Fiction and Nonfiction, and Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction.[13][2]
Impact
In 2016, Kimberly Campbell Kinnaird selected 27 historical fiction novels from the Amelia Bloomer Project to "examine authenticity and empowerment" using "Boreen's three stages of historical authenticity (1999) and Brown and St. Clair's three levels of female empowerment (2002)".[14] Kinnaird's study found the books highly correlated with "female protagonists' authenticity and empowerment."[14] The books included female characters that acted "courageously within society's bounds," defied "society for personal ambition," and acted "as a catalyst for change."[14]
Honorees
The American Library Association's Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table selects books annually for Rise: A Feminist Book Project in six categories based on target audience and genre: Early Readers Fiction and Nonfiction, Middle Grade Fiction and Nonfiction, and Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction.[13]
The following lists the top ten books between 2013 and 2021. Before 2013, the Feminist Task Force did not select the top ten books.
| Year | Audience | Genre | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013[15] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | In the Bag!: Margaret Knight Wraps It Up | Monica Kulling, illus. by David Parkins |
| Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President | Ann Malaspina, illus. by Steve James | |||
| Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers | Sarah E. Warren with Robert Casilla (Illus.) | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Womanthology: Heroic | Various | |
| Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein | |||
| Nonfiction | King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village | Peggielene Bartels and Eleanor Herman | ||
| Rookie Yearbook One | Tavi Gevinson (editor) | |||
| Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond | Lilly Ledbetter with Lanier Scott Isom | |||
| A Little F'd Up: Why Feminism Is Not a Dirty Word | Julie Zeilinger | |||
| 2014[16] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Global Baby Girls | Global Fund for Children |
| Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart | Julie Cummins, illus. by Malene R. Laugesen | |||
| Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 | Michelle Markel with Melissa Sweet (Illus.) | |||
| Middle Grade | Profiles: Freedom Heroines | Frieda Wishinsky | ||
| Young Adult | However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph | Aimee Molloy | ||
| Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II | Cheryl Mullenbach | |||
| The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace | Lynn Povich | |||
| I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban | Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb | |||
| What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? | Marianne Schnall | |||
| Rookie Yearbook Two | Tavi Gevinson (editor) | |||
| 2015[17] | Early Readers | Fiction | A Pair of Twins | Kavitha Mandana, illus. by Nayantara Surendranath |
| Nonfiction | Every Day Is Malala Day | Rosemary McCarney with Plan International | ||
| Middle Grade | Fiction | Hidden | Donna Jo Napoli | |
| Nonfiction | A Woman in the House (and Senate): How Women Came to the United States Congress, Broke Down Barriers, and Changed the Country | Ilene Cooper, illus. by Elizabeth Baddeley | ||
| Because I Am a Girl: I Can Change the World | Rosemary McCarney with Plan International | |||
| I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World: Young Readers Edition | Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | My Notorious Life | Katy Manning | |
| Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir | Liz Prince | |||
| Ms. Marvel: No Normal | G. Willow Wilson, illus. by Adrian Alphona | |||
| Nonfiction | Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space | Lynn Sherr | ||
| 2016[18] | Early Readers | Fiction | Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music | Margarita Engle, illus. by Rafael López |
| Nonfiction | Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm | Karen Deans, illus. by Joe Cepeda | ||
| Middle Grade | Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement[19] | Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Ekua Holmes | ||
| Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space | Tam O'Shaughnessy | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | The Boston Girl | Anita Diamant | |
| Devoted | Jennifer Mathieu | |||
| Nonfiction | We Should All Be Feminists[19] | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | ||
| Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik | |||
| The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu | Kimberly Burge and Lynn Sherr | |||
| African American Women: Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture | ||||
| 2017[20] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark | Debbie Levy, illus. by Elizabethe Baddeley |
| Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer | Diane Stanley, illus. by Jessie Hartland | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Burn Baby Burn | Meg Medina | |
| Exit, Pursueda Bear | E. K. Johnston | |||
| The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge | |||
| Nonfiction | Balcony on the Moon | Ibtisam Barakat | ||
| Becoming Unbecoming | Una | |||
| Take It As a Compliment | Maria Stoian | |||
| Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why | Sady Doyle | |||
| We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out | Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino | |||
| 2018[21] | Early Readers | Fiction | Hand Over Hand | Alma Fullerton, illus. by Renné Benoit |
| Nonfiction | Malala's Magic Pencil | Malala Yousafzai, illus. by Kerascoët | ||
| Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist | Jess Keating, illus. by Marta Alvarez Miguens | |||
| Middle Grade | Fiction | Ahimsa | Supriya Kelkar | |
| Young Adult | Noteworthy | Riley Redgate | ||
| Piecing Me Together | Renée Watson | |||
| Saints and Misfits | S.K. Ali | |||
| The One Hundred Nights of Hero | Isabel Greenberg | |||
| Nonfiction | #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women | Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (editors) | ||
| Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time | Tanya Lee Stone | |||
| 2019[22] | Early Readers | Fiction | Sugar and Snails | Sarah Tsiang with Sonja Wimmer |
| Middle Grade | Crush | Svetlana Chmakova | ||
| Amal Unbound | Aisha Saeed | |||
| Young Adult | The Poet X | Elizabeth Acevedo | ||
| Speak: The Graphic Novel | Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. by Emily Carroll | |||
| Damsel | Elana K. Arnold | |||
| As the Crow Flies | Melanie Gillman | |||
| Learning to Breathe | Janice Lynn Mather | |||
| Blood Water Paint | Joy McCullough | |||
| Naondel | Maria Turtschaninoff | |||
| 2020[23][24] | Early Readers | Fiction | A Boy Like You | Frank Murphy, illus. by Kayla Harren |
| At the Mountain's Base | Traci Sorell with Weshoyot Alvitre | |||
| The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family | Ibtihaj Muhammad, illus. by S.K. Ali and Hatem Aly | |||
| Nonfiction | Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou | Bethany Hegedus, illus. by Tonya Engel | ||
| What Do You Do With a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan | Chris Barton, illus. by Ekua Holmes | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Forward Me Back to You | Mitali Perkins | |
| Surviving the City, Vol. 1 | Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan | |||
| Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All | Laura Ruby | |||
| We Set the Dark on Fire | Tehlor Kay Mejia | |||
| Nonfiction | Shout | Laurie Halse Anderson | ||
| 2021[25][26] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Consent (For Kids!): Boundaries, Respect, and Being in Charge of You | Rachel Brian |
| It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way | Kyo Maclear, illus. by Julie Morstad | |||
| Ritu Weds Chandni | Ameya Narvankar | |||
| Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Doreen Rappaport, illus. by Eric Velasquez | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Clap When You Land | Elizabeth Acevedo | |
| Red Hood | Elana K. Arnold | |||
| Every Body Looking | Candice Iloh | |||
| Nonfiction | Say Her Name | Zetta Elliot | ||
| Know My Name: A Memoir | Chanel Miller | |||
| 2022[27] | Early Readers | Fiction | Laxmi's Mooch | Shelly Anand, illus. by Nabi H. Ali |
| The Big Bath House | Kyo Maclear, illus by Gracey Zhang | |||
| Nonfiction | Bodies Are Cool | Tyler Feder | ||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Firekeeper's Daughter | Angeline Boulley | |
| Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Malinda Lo | |||
| Sistersong | Lucy Holland | |||
| So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix | Bethany C. Morrow | |||
| Nonfiction | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century | Alice Wong | ||
| If I Go Missing | Brianna Jonnie with Nahanni Shingoose and Neal Shannacappo (art) | |||
| Somebody's Daughter | Ashley C. Ford | |||
| 2026[28] | Early Readers | Fiction | Girls on the Rise | Amanda Gorman |
| Brown Girl, Brown Girl | Leslé Honoré | |||
| Nonfiction | The Black Mambas: The World's First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit | Kelly Crull | ||
| Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains | Anita Yasuda | |||
| Middle Grade | Fiction | Ollie In Between | Jess Callans | |
| Young Adult | Fiction | One Step Forward | Marcie Flinchum Atkins | |
| Everything is Poison | Joy McCullough | |||
| Truth Is | Hannah V. Sawyerr | |||
| The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday | Kelsey B. Toney | |||
| Nonfiction | Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America (A Love Story) | Deborah Heiligman |
References
- ^ "The Amelia Bloomer Book List | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
- ^ Meadows, Rebecca. "Children's Books: Amelia Bloomer Book List". UCF Research Guides. University of Central Florida. Archived 2021-05-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
- ^ Law, Jennie S.; McCoy, Maureen; Olshewsky, Beth; Semifero, Angela (Spring 2012). "All About Amelia: The Amelia Bloomer Project". Young Adult Library Services. – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ Schulte-Cooper, Laura (Fall 2015). [1] "Awards that Celebrate Diversity in Children's Literature"]. Children & Libraries. 13 (3): 34–35. doi:10.5860/cal.13n3.34
- ^ Buehler, Jennifer; Plumb, Daria; Walsh, Jennifer (2013). "Young Adult Literature Book Awards: A Guide for Newcomers to the Field". The ALAN Review. 40 (3). doi:10.21061/alan.v40i3.a.18. ISSN 1547-741X. Archived 2021-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- ^ Landers, Alyson. "Children's Social Justice Literature | Learning to Give". Learning to Give. Archived 2021-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- ^ McElhannon, Sherry & Rogers, Jessica (2016). "Professional Development and Classroom Resources for the Urban Elementary Literacy Educator". Culturally Affirming Literacy Practices for Urban Elementary Students. Scott, Lakia M. & Purdum-Cassidy, Barbara (eds.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 163–190.
- ^ Bennett, Susan V.; Gunn, AnnMarie Alberton; Peterson, Barbara J. (2021). "Access to Multicultural Children's Literature During COVID-19". The Reading Teacher. 74 (6): 785–796. doi:10.1002/trtr.2003. ISSN 1936-2714. PMC 8250665. PMID 34230696
- ^ Rowland-Storm, Cuthbert (2018). "Creating an Appealing and Usable Library of High-Quality Diverse Nonfiction Texts". Exploring Nonfiction Literacies: Innovative Practices in Classrooms. Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian S.; Hudock, Laura Anne; McKoy Lowery, Ruth (eds.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781475843439.
- ^ Tieger, Kelly (May 2015). If I Had an F: A Feminist Picture Book for Boys (MSEd thesis). Bank Street College of Education. Archived 2021-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- ^ Kogut, Ashlynn; D'Aveta, Laura; Tabacaru, Simona (2021-05-06). "Assessment of Acquisition Methods for a Juvenile Literature Collection at a Research University". Collection Management. 47 (2–3): 87–100. doi:10.1080/01462679.2021.1919270. ISSN 0146-2679. S2CID 236593541. Archived 2023-02-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
- ^ Jarnagin, Briana (2020-01-28). "2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project committee introduces new name and top ten feminist books for young readers". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2021-02-10). "2021 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ Kinnaird, Kimberly Campbell (2016-05-30). Authenticity and empowerment: Female role models in historical fiction from the Amelia Bloomer Project (PhD dissertation). Texas Women's University. hdl:11274/10012. Archived 2023-02-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2017-01-13). "2013 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-01-17 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
- ^ Amundsen, John L. (2014-01-28). "2014 Amelia Bloomer List highlights feminist books for young readers". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2017-01-13). "2015 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2017-01-13). "2016 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2020-06-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Roy, Leila (2016-02-05). "Inspiring Young Feminists: The Amelia Bloomer List". Book Riot. Archived 2022-01-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2017-01-25). "2017 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-23 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2018-02-14). "2018 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2019-02-01). "2019 Amelia Bloomer List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-25 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Jarnagin, Briana (2020-01-28). "2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project committee introduces new name and top ten feminist books for young readers". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Yorio, Kara (2020-02-18). "2020 Rise: A Feminist Booklist for Young Readers". School Library Journal. Archived 2022-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ^ Feminist Task Force (2021-02-10). "2021 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List". American Library Association. Archived 2021-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ SLJ Staff (2021-04-22). "2021 RISE Book Project Announces Top 10 Feminist Titles for Young Readers and More | News Bites". School Library Journal. Archived 2022-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ^ Chapman, Monica (2022-02-01). "2022 Rise Book Project presents Top Ten feminist books for young readers". American Library Association. Archived 2022-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ^ "2026 Rise Book Project presents Top Ten feminist books for young readers | ALA". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2026-01-27.