THIS LITTLE TRAILBLAZER

Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, and Maria Tallchief are some of the icons introduced in this “Girl Power Primer.”

On the book’s first two pages, these and seven other women and girls (elementary school student Ruby Bridges and teen Malala Yousafzai are in the mix) appear in a group shot on a flowery field against a pink sky. Holub’s couplets, which range from passable to clunky, appear on the versos of the next 10 double-page spreads accompanied by a small portrait of the featured trailblazer. On each recto, there is a full-page image of the subject in action with a small one- or two-sentence caption with additional details. Roode’s highly saturated illustrations, which look to have been created with CGI tools, turn each figure from history into a wide-eyed cartoon with an oversized head. Unfortunately, this cutesy and simplified style makes architect and sculptor Maya Lin look to be about 3 and Ada Lovelace appear to be opening window blinds rather than creating one of the first computer programs (although how one would represent this to very young children is a bit of a puzzle). The final two pages present 12 additional women, leaving a 13th space with a question mark labeled “You!”

While this historic roll call is impressively diverse, toddlers are highly unlikely to grasp the importance of these female pioneers from the few, short lines and the simplified and sometimes confusing images.