Changing Woman and Her Sisters: Stories of Goddesses from Around the World
Grade 4 Up–Empowered women are the focus of this collection and empowering young women is seemingly its intention. Drawing from the mythology of 10 diverse cultures (Navajo, Celtic, Inuit, Buddhist, Egyptian, Mayan, Shinto, Sumerian, Hindu, and Fon), Tchana demonstrates that legends of supernaturally gifted females are endemic in human belief systems, though they may have receded into the background in recent millennia. Tchana and Hyman united to bring goddesses back into the limelight in this handsome volume. The stories are each accompanied by a paragraph about the featured figure and her land of origin and each one is told with attention to the rhythms of their original languages. In an afterword, Hyman states that she contacted each goddess personally…[to]…ask how she would like to be portrayed. The resultant lush, multimedia collages combine her characteristically sinuous ink lines with elements such as photographs, handmade paper, fabric, and fragments of other artists' paintings. It is certainly interesting to read about so many previously obscure goddesses. The subject of this volume, paired with the reputation of its illustrator, will induce many libraries to include it in their collections.–Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.