Title: Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World

Written by: Jean Menzies

Illustrated by: Katie Ponder

Published by: Dorling Kindersley (a subsidiary of Penguin Random House)

Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World by Jean Menzies and Katie Ponder is a carefully crafted, hard-back illustrated non-fiction in the style of AA Publishing’s The Woman Who Rode a Shark and 50 More Wild Female Adventurers by Ailsa Ross and Amy Blackwell and A Galaxy of Her Own Amazing Stories of Women in Space by Libby Jackson, published by Century , which is another subsidiary of Penguin Random House. I found this to be a slight diversion from Dorling Kindersley usual familiar encyclopaedic format.

Jean Menzies has divided the book into four chapters: Goddesses, Magical Being, Mortals and a final shorter chapter entitled About the Myths, which discusses how the stories have been shared over the eras through story telling and art work and how they have been recorded in scrolls and famous books like The Mabinogion, often in poetry form. This chapter briefly gives a mention to some of the temples, monuments and festivals there are to worship the goddesses.

The first three chapters have been segmented into sections for example there are sections on creator goddesses, goddesses of the stars, moon and sky and goddesses of animals to name a few. Each of these sections has an introduction and then a couple of the mentioned women from each introduction are elaborated upon with a significant story about the heroine or goddess to explain why they were worshipped. Katie Ponder’s pastel coloured illustrations compliment the stories and highlight the main parts bringing the stories alive. There is also a useful pronunciation guide, glossary and index to help the readers at the back of the book.

Unlike other books of this calibre the women included have not been confined to a double page spread of facts, which makes it stand out as unique. Jean Menzies has been given the freedom to explore why the female entries were revered and often feared just as much as their male counterparts, throughout the ages. It contributes to filling the gap of equality in the world of myths and legends and highlights the diverse nature by showing how each culture worshipped similar goddesses or idealised strong female heroines each one with their own story and achievements.

Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World would be a fantastic resource in the classroom and ideal for any young reader interested in myths and legends. The sections can be read in any order and is great for dipping into and for exploring the stories. Individual stories could be read aloud during story time, in assemblies or even at the end of the day before bedtime.

A beautiful celebration of the contribution women have made to their heritage.