Synopsis
“Good Girls Don’t Make History”, aims to tell history from a female point of view. Beginning in the 1840s, this graphic novel tells, and celebrates several women who dedicated their lives to the suffragette movement. While reflecting on the past, “Good Girls Don’t Make History”, also looks towards modern-day struggles to show how there is an ongoing need to fight for equality and justice.



Thoughts
💭Today, more than ever, (graphic) novels like this one are so important! This graphic novel focuses mainly on the American reality, that is, on the history of the suffragette movement established in the US, and also on present-day issues. I found this to be such an interesting concept, and one that could honestly be extended to tell the history of the suffragette movement in other national realities.

💭Intersectional Feminism. This is something that I think it’s incredibly important to highlight. The novel focuses on the fight for women’s enfranchisement, but at the same time acknowledges (and even emphasizes) that some people had to fight harder than others. While it is true that this novel recognizes that the experiences of Black and First Nations women are removed from history, I would have liked to see the novel focusing more on their stories and experiences.

💭The illustrations are just…*chef’s kiss*. I loved the watercolor texture of the illustrations, which is something that I haven’t seen much in graphic novels, but that complements perfectly the theme of this one.


Thank you to @netgalley, @quartobooksuk for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

This was an enjoyable, easily digestible book to read. It is written in comic book format, with quotes interspersed from various high profile women of the Equal Rights Movement, and it shows the progression & intersectionality of the movement over the past hundred plus years. It is a relatively short book, coming in at under 200 pages, so it can only go so in-depth, meaning many aspects of this movement are just touched on briefly, but this is a good starting place if you don't know much about women's suffrage or the E.R.A. ratification process. I don't think it should be a be-all-end-all source for learning about these topics, but it is definitely a nice source of material in a fun format.

A really good graphic novel about feminism and voting right's history.
I really like how the writers includes some moments in the present with the queue for voting to introduce and explain why it's so important to take time, even if it's seems long, for vote.
It allow to discover and know the women who fight for this right and for the progress towards equality. While remaining accessible to teenagers and young-adult who will be the voters of tomorrow.
graphically I like the draws and the colors, they were very pleasant and I really hope I will see it on paper soon !

In a nutshell: This is an educational and insightful graphic novel, but it is intended mainly for the US audience.
“Good girls don’t make history” is a creative reconstruction of the historical events related to women’s struggles to be enfranchised. The story is presented from the present timeline with the narrative going back to the past to recount anecdotes of the famous suffragists who fought for the rights till their very end. The content covers not just white women but also black and native American women who fought the same battle with greater struggles.

On the positive side, the book is inspiring and informative. It shows us how much we have to be grateful for to the courageous women (and men) of the past who were ready to speak against the status quo. People don’t realise that the suffragist movement wasn’t a fight for women’s rights but for equal rights. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. This is especially true when it comes to human right movements of any kinds.

However, the back-and-forth timeline is a little confusing, especially as there is no background provided for any of the historical women. Jumping straight into the movement without knowing how they reached there is like starting a story from in between. It would have helped to know some informative details of the women or to have only one timeline presented in a chronological way, ending in the present. I also felt as if a certain foundational knowledge has been assumed by the book. In that sense, only American readers will benefit from the book as the rest will find a lot of missing gaps in the details provided.

The artwork is appealing. The whole book has a watercolour kind of look, lending a very different feel to the panels. It’s like the resilience of the women is reflected in the fluidity of the graphics. The illustrations are the biggest USP of this book.

The fight for women’s rights still goes on. Especially today, in the light of what is happening in Afghanistan, we realise that the struggle is never over. Some battles have been won; there are many more yet to be fought. Let’s remember what Abigail Scott Duniway said: "The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future.”

I loved the intent behind this book, I liked the content too. I just wish it were presented in a better, more easily comprehensible structure so that it could have been read by a wider audience in terms of age as well as nationality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Good Girls Don’t Make History, is a graphic semi non-fiction, where you are able to learn and discover about the women who fought to get the rights that women have today. Growing up in the UK we had our own women’s struggles and fight for our rights, so reading this and discovering what all types of women in America had to go through was a part of history I’m glad I now know a little better. That I now know a little bit more about individuals and what they had to do to have an impact.

graphic-novel, voting-history, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, new-presentation*****

This well executed book makes it quite clear that the issues of women's suffrage is both historical and ongoing. While this is not news to some of us, it is definitely news to today's young citizens of the world. Very engaging format and appropriate to the target readers. WELL DONE!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions / Wide Eyed Editions via NetGalley. Thank you!

" For every woman who will get the right to vote, from this day on. may she know what sacrifices were made to get it and what power she had because of it."

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a arc of this book.

This book was very inspiring and i liked it . It follows women during the 1900s and their fight for the right to vote. it taught me alot about the history of the US women's rights movement and it was a very fast and informing read.

Buy this book. The author did an amazing job in researching the suffragette movement. Along with the great research, she made a point of seamlessly explaining how important it is for women and the current battles to be fought. The artwork was phenomenal.

4.0 out of 5 stars

I loved this! The art style is gorgeous and it is very informative, while also being interesting and well written. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters, but it didn’t matter because that’s not what the story was trying to do. It was trying to educate in a fun way and it succeeded. Certainly a lot better than an essay.

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read and review this!

I think this is great for kids in the US, but not as interesting for someone from elsewhere.

A concise and educational graphic novel historical account of women's suffrage. We focus on some major key players in the movement (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Dunbar, Lucretia Mott, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, just to name a few). We follow the timeline from the Seneca Falls Convention through to the ratification of the 19th amendment.

There are a lot of things this graphic novel did well. I appreciated the thoughtful way history was recounted in easily digestible segments. I really enjoyed the art and the typography. I also like the range of individuals included. All this aside, I do think the graphic novel could have done more to focus on the racism and separatism of the original women's movement. It is mentioned but it isn't really explored. I recognize that there is a lot of history to recount to paint a full picture, but I think the exclusionary practices should be talked about more. We can't amend for history that we don't know exists.

**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

I love this whole book! I love that it is a graphic novel style that will reach many more readers and still present important history. It's an important topic that many young people probably wouldn't be interested in learning about by reading a typical history book, but the graphic novel style makes it relatable and more entertaining for young readers. The illustrations are also great. I think it is very well done.

(thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC)

I found that for me, as a young English girl, it was very enlightening to learn about the women’s suffrage movement in America. The illustrations I’m this short graphic novel were beautiful and make this book so accessible and educational for all ages. Overall I loved this book, it was both informative but concise and well-written!

This is a wonderful graphic novel! Good Girls Don't Make History is a great Kickstarter and graphic novel that covers the history of women's suffrage in the United States. Part of it is set during the modern times as well as the history of the of learning the vote. It's really excellent and beautiful and the art is great.

Good Girls Don't Make History is a great graphic novel about the history of women's suffrage in the United States. The art is very stylistic and beautiful. The authors did a great job of focusing the intersectional feminism in this book and how white suffragists got the vote but women of colour did not even though these women of colour fought with on their side so they could get the vote.

The graphic novel format makes this very accessible for younger audiences who are most likely to forget or not to consider how long women, and particularly women of colour, fought for the right to vote.

A novel that addresses all aspects of women’s rights, sides often omitted from the history books. This graphic novel highlights the importance of fighting for women’s rights, especially since it is an ongoing issue.

Good Girls Don't Make History
by Elizabeth Kiehner; Kara Coyle
Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions
Wide Eyed Editions
Teens & YA
Pub Date 31 Aug 2021


I am reviewing a copy of Good Girls Don’t Make History through Quarto Publishing Group and Netgalley:




This beautifully illustrated and written graphic history of The Women’s Suffrage movement and beyond would be a great way to introduce Junior High and High School students a look into how women In America had to fight for equality and continue to do so.


The books spans from 1840 to present day, and amplifies the voice of female legends.



The tale begins at a modern-day polling station in California with a mother and daughter voting together, then flashes back 180 years to the World Anti-Slavery Convention where the women's movement got its legendary start.



This book allows the reader to relive moments from the lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, and Susan B. Anthony, these inspiring stories are boldly told from one of the most formative eras in women’s history—the fight for the vote in the United States.



The story and it’s twists and turns take readers across the country and through time, illuminating parallels between epic battles for liberty in the past and similar struggles for justice today.



I give Good Girl’s Don’t Make History five out of five stars!


Happy Reading…

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Wide Eyed Editions for giving me access to this publication as an E-ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This is a comic both created, written and illustrated by women which I enjoyed (not that I read *that* many comics though..), and the topic is certainly important! I'm from Sweden and 2021 marks the year Swedish women were allowed to vote and take office, so this comic was fitting in that regard also.

It's inspiring to read about these women who paved the way for us; some of them with their lives (I'm looking at you Emily Davison!) so that we too - in our respective countries - could be a part of our societies and shape the country and/or community we live in.

I learned a lot about women who fighted for suffrage of for their people. The graphic part is excellent.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is a beautifully illustrated and very informative novel. It jumps between the past when some very inspirational women were fighting for the rights of suffrage and the modern day relating those past struggles to our modern democracy. This was a super fascinating read and shone a light on some of the lesser well known activists as well as household names.