Tales of History's Boldest Heroines - and Heretics

Highly recommend!!! It's sort of like the best textbook ever, but instead of long chapters on each person, it's usually two, maybe three pages per person. You get a very well written, concise description on that person, and an illustration. It's a place to jump from to learn more in-depth before moving on to the next woman of history. There is a lot of upfront opinions sprinkled liberally; opinions that range from thoughts that source material might be bias, that crappy things happen, that people can often be crappy, that woman can be bad-ass, s***ty, amazing, warriors, ruthless, brilliant, and all of the above all at once. It took me about two weeks to read it all - I would read five or six entries and pause. I've just finished the entire book, and I will be quite honest that the last few entries are extremely intense. Example: Ida B. Wells - I've admired her for years now, and I thought I knew her biography, and I did, but in those few pages, I realized that what I knew, had read, heard, had been softened, made easier to digest. I don't have the words for how much more I admire her now. These pages, I feel, take their subjects at face value - not softened, not hardened, not vilified, or made into a saint - just people, women, making do with what life has dished out, and as we all know, life is hard, and often painful. We take pleasure where we can, see the beauty in the moments, protect what we love. I'm glad I drew out the reading, because I'm rather emotional at the finish. Thank you Jason Porath, for making me feel connected to history in a way I hadn't before.

I encountered the beginnings of this collection a year ago on tumblr, and loved the intersection of historical women and a casual, engaging storytelling. Not only have I enjoyed this collection of stories, but I've given three of them as gifts this year!

It's a fantastic book, with a clear progression of "ratings" as the book goes on. The illustrations are colorful, charming, and badass, just like the subjects of each story.

Powerful display of positive female role models throughout history. Beautiful art helps captivate the imagination of each princess. The book has helpful keys for age appropriateness, violence levels, sexual content, etc. I heard about this book on NPR and do not regret buying it for 1 second.

I came by the Rejected Princesses posts on Facebook by chance, and I have been a fan ever since. This book had a lot to live up to, and it has exceeded my expectations in the short time I've had it. The illustrations are very thoughtful and purposeful, and the accompanying biographies are that hard-to-reach combination of clever, fascinating, informative, and aching.

Buy this book for yourself and a friend.

00m here again: yes, my students did just use the book to look up rude stories, but they did actually learn something in the process because the stories with violence and assault in them were about a whole lot more than violence and assault. Most depictions of sexual intercourse and sexuality in the book are not violent.

The book is not only very interesting and also very beautiful!! I honestly think it was actually very cheap, considering the size and the design it could have cost a lot more. It is definitely a MUST BUY!!

All the ladies who really shouldn't have been left to history. I love the way its organized by maturity level and has content warnings. That is going to come in handy when I'm reading to my nephews. It has a nice mix of different cultures, mythologies, and legends.

I fell in love with this book immediately, which has never happened to me before. I am not an early adopter, and it's the onus of every book to entice me. Of course, by the time I know that, I'm usually victim to time sink fallacy. But look at this cover. It looks like all the books in the old Disney movies. You know, like in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty where a live-action book opens at the beginning and closes at "the end". Now I have a book like that. I can look like I'm reading an old timey volume of forgotten lore (quoth the raven). Look at me -- I'm gushing and I haven't even opened the book yet.

Inside is more than fifty stories of women who kicked ass and took names, folk tales you never heard of, tribal leaders, revolutionaries, women who outrode Paul Revere, outsmarted popes, outbattled kings, and outwitted empires. Each entry is about a page or two, so no princess outstays her welcome. They're like wikipedia entries, but don't duplicate the dry descriptions. Many include anecdotes and details that bring them to life as real people who existed. This is not a research/reference book. It's entertaining and informative like The Daily Show or CGPGrey or Extra Credits. The author adds a unique flavor/voice that gives away how much he loves this subject and how much he wants to share it.

Plus, each entry has a beautiful illustration of the lady therein, rendered as a kind of Dreamworks/Disney princess. Like each woman has her own movie poster. It even includes notes on how the art includes culture and tidbits not in the story.

Now this volume does have a fault: there are maturity ratings and content warnings for each story, ranging from one to five. But even the tamest wasn't appropriate for kids under ten (IMHO). In fact, just about all of them... well, this makes me sound like the most conservative of parents, but they acknowledge the existence of sex, use words like "plastered", and assume some historical knowledge. It's not that the content is vulgar or adult. It just brings up questions that I don't need to answers yet. Which makes it kind of strange that this book wants to highlight famous influential women, but the content is too old for when girls are their most influenced. Maybe they can release a PG version for the younglings? I want them to learn about these people too. The earlier the better.

LOVE this book!!!! So well done, the illustrations are amazing, the writing is engaging. My only complaint is my nieces and nephews aren't old enough to read it (this is NOT a Children's book!) Full disclosure, I am a Feminist and I seek out historical figures that are not covered in the classroom. This is a great primer and springboard for further research.

I was excited to hear the author was publishing a book with his amazing stories, and immediately bought one for my sister to read before bed. She loves it, hearing the interesting tales, and has a lot of questions to ask because of it.

This is a charming, uproarious, hilarious, totally badass book, and why are you reading this review when you could be reading the book instead? I bought three, one for two other awesome women in my life and one for myself. It's *awesome.* 'Nuff said.

Well written, very entertaining and educational! Definitely keep an eye on the ratings when reading to kids. I do wish it was a little more travel friendly, this book is heavy! More like coffee table material. Doesn't stop me from trying to carry it around anyway though. Definitely recommend!!

A truly enjoyable and informative book- with 100 women from history and myth (mostly history) in a variety of lives more than worth knowing about. Even with a mere page or few devoted to each, Rejected Princesses draws you in, and the illustrations only help bring their lives into mind.

As one might expect from history, a number of the stories have a share of unpleasantness (some downright brutal), but the book does give guides to identify them if you want to avoid certain aspects (most of the entries in the early sections I'd have no problem sharing with young kids), or plunge right through for the story of women who went through some of the roughest periods history has to over.

All of which, presented in an enjoyable and accessible writing style.

This one's got a new favored spot on my bookshelf

The book is humorously written so it feels more like stories being told one on one rather than dry factual. The artwork is stunning and very well thought out. My book did arrive with scratches on the back cover and some pages weren't perfectly flat, but still very much worth it!

If you have daughters, these are women they should learn about. If you think Disney does little girls or your inner little girl a disservice in gender roles, expectations, and generally who they can be, read this book. If it doesn't empower you I don't know what will.

This book has the type of women little girls dream of becoming; hard working, butt kicking, adventure seekers. These real women empower others to stand up for themselves and not dwell on the bad that has happened.

Truly amazing work, celebrating women in all their glory. A must have for every woman and girl, in fact every man too.

Having followed rejected princess from when it first started as a Facebook and website, to this masterpiece, it is one of the books I waited for with baited breath. And I was not disappointed.

Thank you for showing women at their best. Thank you. You've given voice to women in their most primal, fierce natural, survivalist, creative, intelligent, and not being cliché badass including cunning and vengeful nature, and reminded the world that, these were also a woman's place and role in this world. Not just the Judeo-Christian Victorian idealistic prudish submissive model thrust upon women by society today.

So get your copy and enjoy

The book is gorgeous. My girlfriend loved it. It is full of funny, thoughtful tales of women who should be common knowledge but aren't. The book all has an easy to read maturity rating and trigger warning system.

Absolutely incredible book and it was in perfect condition. My best friend and I ended up giving a copy to each other for Christmas it was so perfect. Really informative and thought provoking as well!