# Rise: A Feminist Book Project

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. 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.
Researchers, librarians, and educators have used the list to recognize and select books with feminist content for young people.

## 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". 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."
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". 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". 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.
Every year, books are judged based on three main criteria:
* 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.

## 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)". Kinnaird's study found the books highly correlated with "female protagonists' authenticity and empowerment." The books included female characters that acted "courageously within society's bounds," defied "society for personal ambition," and acted "as a catalyst for change."

## 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.
The following lists the top ten books between 2013 and 2021. Before 2013, the Feminist Task Force did not select the top ten books.
RISE: Top Ten (2013-2021) :
| Year | Audience | Genre | Title | Author |
| 2013 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | In the Bag!: Margaret Knight Wraps It Up | Monica Kulling, illus. by David Parkins |
| 2013 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President | Ann Malaspina, illus. by Steve James |
| 2013 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers | Sarah E. Warren with Robert Casilla (Illus.) |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Fiction | Womanthology: Heroic | Various |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Fiction | Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein |
| 2013 | Young Adult | 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 |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Rookie Yearbook One | Tavi Gevinson (editor) |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond | Lilly Ledbetter with Lanier Scott Isom |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | A Little F'd Up: Why Feminism Is Not a Dirty Word | Julie Zeilinger |
| 2014 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Global Baby Girls | Global Fund for Children |
| 2014 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart | Julie Cummins, illus. by Malene R. Laugesen |
| 2014 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 | Michelle Markel with Melissa Sweet (Illus.) |
| 2014 | Middle Grade | Nonfiction | Profiles: Freedom Heroines | Frieda Wishinsky |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph | Aimee Molloy |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II | Cheryl Mullenbach |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace | Lynn Povich |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban | Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? | Marianne Schnall |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Rookie Yearbook Two | Tavi Gevinson (editor) |
| 2015 | Early Readers | Fiction | A Pair of Twins | Kavitha Mandana, illus. by Nayantara Surendranath |
| 2015 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Every Day Is Malala Day | Rosemary McCarney with Plan International |
| 2015 | Middle Grade | Fiction | Hidden | Donna Jo Napoli |
| 2015 | Middle Grade | 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 |
| 2015 | Middle Grade | Nonfiction | Because I Am a Girl: I Can Change the World | Rosemary McCarney with Plan International |
| 2015 | Middle Grade | Nonfiction | I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World: Young Readers Edition | Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick |
| 2015 | Young Adult | Fiction | My Notorious Life | Katy Manning |
| 2015 | Young Adult | Fiction | Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir | Liz Prince |
| 2015 | Young Adult | Fiction | Ms. Marvel: No Normal | G. Willow Wilson, illus. by Adrian Alphona |
| 2015 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space | Lynn Sherr |
| 2016 | Early Readers | Fiction | Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music | Margarita Engle, illus. by Rafael López |
| 2016 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm | Karen Deans, illus. by Joe Cepeda |
| 2016 | Middle Grade | Nonfiction | Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement | Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Ekua Holmes |
| 2016 | Middle Grade | Nonfiction | Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space | Tam O'Shaughnessy |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Fiction | The Boston Girl | Anita Diamant |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Fiction | Devoted | Jennifer Mathieu |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | We Should All Be Feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu | Kimberly Burge and Lynn Sherr |
| 2016 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | African American Women: Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture | |
| 2017 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark | Debbie Levy, illus. by Elizabethe Baddeley |
| 2017 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer | Diane Stanley, illus. by Jessie Hartland |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Fiction | Burn Baby Burn | Meg Medina |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Fiction | Exit, Pursueda Bear | E. K. Johnston |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Fiction | The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Balcony on the Moon | Ibtisam Barakat |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Becoming Unbecoming | Una |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Take It As a Compliment | Maria Stoian |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear… and Why | Sady Doyle |
| 2017 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out | Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino |
| 2018 | Early Readers | Fiction | Hand Over Hand | Alma Fullerton, illus. by Renné Benoit |
| 2018 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Malala's Magic Pencil | Malala Yousafzai, illus. by Kerascoët |
| 2018 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist | Jess Keating, illus. by Marta Alvarez Miguens |
| 2018 | Middle Grade | Fiction | Ahimsa | Supriya Kelkar |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Fiction | Noteworthy | Riley Redgate |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Fiction | Piecing Me Together | Renée Watson |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Fiction | Saints and Misfits | S.K. Ali |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Fiction | The One Hundred Nights of Hero | Isabel Greenberg |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women | Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (editors) |
| 2018 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time | Tanya Lee Stone |
| 2019 | Early Readers | Fiction | Sugar and Snails | Sarah Tsiang with Sonja Wimmer |
| 2019 | Middle Grade | Fiction | Crush | Svetlana Chmakova |
| 2019 | Middle Grade | Fiction | Amal Unbound | Aisha Saeed |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | The Poet X | Elizabeth Acevedo |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | Speak: The Graphic Novel | Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. by Emily Carroll |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | Damsel | Elana K. Arnold |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | As the Crow Flies | Melanie Gillman |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | Learning to Breathe | Janice Lynn Mather |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | Blood Water Paint | Joy McCullough |
| 2019 | Young Adult | Fiction | Naondel | Maria Turtschaninoff |
| 2020 | Early Readers | Fiction | A Boy Like You | Frank Murphy, illus. by Kayla Harren |
| 2020 | Early Readers | Fiction | At the Mountain's Base | Traci Sorell with Weshoyot Alvitre |
| 2020 | Early Readers | Fiction | The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family | Ibtihaj Muhammad, illus. by S.K. Ali and Hatem Aly |
| 2020 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou | Bethany Hegedus, illus. by Tonya Engel |
| 2020 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | What Do You Do With a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan | Chris Barton, illus. by Ekua Holmes |
| 2020 | Young Adult | Fiction | Forward Me Back to You | Mitali Perkins |
| 2020 | Young Adult | Fiction | Surviving the City, Vol. 1 | Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan |
| 2020 | Young Adult | Fiction | Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All | Laura Ruby |
| 2020 | Young Adult | Fiction | We Set the Dark on Fire | Tehlor Kay Mejia |
| 2020 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Shout | Laurie Halse Anderson |
| 2021 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Consent (For Kids!): Boundaries, Respect, and Being in Charge of You | Rachel Brian |
| 2021 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way | Kyo Maclear, illus. by Julie Morstad |
| 2021 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Ritu Weds Chandni | Ameya Narvankar |
| 2021 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Doreen Rappaport, illus. by Eric Velasquez |
| 2021 | Young Adult | Fiction | Clap When You Land | Elizabeth Acevedo |
| 2021 | Young Adult | Fiction | Red Hood | Elana K. Arnold |
| 2021 | Young Adult | Fiction | Every Body Looking | Candice Iloh |
| 2021 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Say Her Name | Zetta Elliot |
| 2021 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Know My Name: A Memoir | Chanel Miller |
| 2022 | Early Readers | Fiction | Laxmi's Mooch | Shelly Anand, illus. by Nabi H. Ali |
| 2022 | Early Readers | Fiction | The Big Bath House | Kyo Maclear, illus by Gracey Zhang |
| 2022 | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Bodies Are Cool | Tyler Feder |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Fiction | Firekeeper's Daughter | Angeline Boulley |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Fiction | Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Malinda Lo |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Fiction | Sistersong | Lucy Holland |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Fiction | So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix | Bethany C. Morrow |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century | Alice Wong |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | If I Go Missing | Brianna Jonnie with Nahanni Shingoose and Neal Shannacappo (art) |
| 2022 | Young Adult | Nonfiction | Somebody's Daughter | Ashley C. Ford |