Rise: A Feminist Book Project, formerly known as theAmelia Bloomer Project and compiled by theAmerican Library Association, is an annual list of books with significant feminist content that are intended for readers from birth to age 18.[1][2] 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.[3]
Researchers, librarians, and educators have used the list to recognize and select books with feminist content for young people.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations]
TheAmerican 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".[12] 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."[3]
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".[12] 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".[12] This belief prompted the 2020 name change.
The judges consider both fiction and nonfictional, as well as illustrated books that have been published in the previous 18 months.[1]
Every year, books are judged based on three main criteria:[1]
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.[13][2]
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)".[14] Kinnaird's study found the books highly correlated with "female protagonists' authenticity and empowerment."[14] The books included female characters that acted "courageously within society's bounds," defied "society for personal ambition," and acted "as a catalyst for change."[14]
TheAmerican 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.[13]
The following lists the top ten books between 2013 and 2021. Before 2013, the Feminist Task Force did not select the top ten books.
| Year | Audience | Genre | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013[15] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | In the Bag!: Margaret Knight Wraps It Up | Monica Kulling, illus. byDavid Parkins |
| Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President | Ann Malaspina, illus. by Steve James | |||
| Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers | Sarah E. Warren withRobert Casilla (Illus.) | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Womanthology: Heroic | Various | |
| Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein | |||
| Nonfiction | King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village | Peggielene Bartels andEleanor Herman | ||
| Rookie Yearbook One | Tavi Gevinson (editor) | |||
| Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond | Lilly Ledbetter withLanier Scott Isom | |||
| A Little F'd Up: Why Feminism Is Not a Dirty Word | Julie Zeilinger | |||
| 2014[16] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Global Baby Girls | Global Fund for Children |
| Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart | Julie Cummins, illus. byMalene R. Laugesen | |||
| Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 | Michelle Markel withMelissa Sweet (Illus.) | |||
| Middle Grade | Profiles: Freedom Heroines | Frieda Wishinsky | ||
| Young Adult | However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph | Aimee Molloy | ||
| Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II | Cheryl Mullenbach | |||
| The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace | Lynn Povich | |||
| I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban | Malala Yousafzai withChristina Lamb | |||
| What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? | Marianne Schnall | |||
| Rookie Yearbook Two | Tavi Gevinson (editor) | |||
| 2015[17] | Early Readers | Fiction | A Pair of Twins | Kavitha Mandana, illus. byNayantara Surendranath |
| Nonfiction | Every Day Is Malala Day | Rosemary McCarney withPlan International | ||
| Middle Grade | Fiction | Hidden | Donna Jo Napoli | |
| 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. byElizabeth Baddeley | ||
| Because I Am a Girl: I Can Change the World | Rosemary McCarney withPlan International | |||
| I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World: Young Readers Edition | Malala Yousafzai withPatricia McCormick | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | My Notorious Life | Katy Manning | |
| Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir | Liz Prince | |||
| Ms. Marvel: No Normal | G. Willow Wilson, illus. byAdrian Alphona | |||
| Nonfiction | Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space | Lynn Sherr | ||
| 2016[18] | Early Readers | Fiction | Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music | Margarita Engle, illus. byRafael López |
| Nonfiction | Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm | Karen Deans, illus. byJoe Cepeda | ||
| Middle Grade | Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement[19] | Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. byEkua Holmes | ||
| Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space | Tam O'Shaughnessy | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | The Boston Girl | Anita Diamant | |
| Devoted | Jennifer Mathieu | |||
| Nonfiction | We Should All Be Feminists[19] | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | ||
| Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Irin Carmon andShana Knizhnik | |||
| The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu | Kimberly Burge andLynn Sherr | |||
| African American Women: Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture | ||||
| 2017[20] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark | Debbie Levy, illus. byElizabethe Baddeley |
| Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer | Diane Stanley, illus. byJessie Hartland | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Burn Baby Burn | Meg Medina | |
| Exit, Pursueda Bear | E. K. Johnston | |||
| The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge | |||
| Nonfiction | Balcony on the Moon | Ibtisam Barakat | ||
| Becoming Unbecoming | Una | |||
| Take It As a Compliment | Maria Stoian | |||
| Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear… and Why | Sady Doyle | |||
| We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out | Annie E. Clark andAndrea L. Pino | |||
| 2018[21] | Early Readers | Fiction | Hand Over Hand | Alma Fullerton, illus. byRenné Benoit |
| Nonfiction | Malala's Magic Pencil | Malala Yousafzai, illus. byKerascoët | ||
| Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist | Jess Keating, illus. byMarta Alvarez Miguens | |||
| Middle Grade | Fiction | Ahimsa | Supriya Kelkar | |
| Young Adult | Noteworthy | Riley Redgate | ||
| Piecing Me Together | Renée Watson | |||
| Saints and Misfits | S.K. Ali | |||
| The One Hundred Nights of Hero | Isabel Greenberg | |||
| Nonfiction | #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women | Lisa Charleyboy andMary Beth Leatherdale (editors) | ||
| Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time | Tanya Lee Stone | |||
| 2019[22] | Early Readers | Fiction | Sugar and Snails | Sarah Tsiang withSonja Wimmer |
| Middle Grade | Crush | Svetlana Chmakova | ||
| Amal Unbound | Aisha Saeed | |||
| Young Adult | The Poet X | Elizabeth Acevedo | ||
| Speak: The Graphic Novel | Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. byEmily Carroll | |||
| Damsel | Elana K. Arnold | |||
| As the Crow Flies | Melanie Gillman | |||
| Learning to Breathe | Janice Lynn Mather | |||
| Blood Water Paint | Joy McCullough | |||
| Naondel | Maria Turtschaninoff | |||
| 2020[23][24] | Early Readers | Fiction | A Boy Like You | Frank Murphy, illus. byKayla Harren |
| At the Mountain's Base | Traci Sorell withWeshoyot Alvitre | |||
| The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family | Ibtihaj Muhammad, illus. byS.K. Ali andHatem Aly | |||
| Nonfiction | Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou | Bethany Hegedus, illus. byTonya Engel | ||
| What Do You Do With a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan | Chris Barton, illus. byEkua Holmes | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Forward Me Back to You | Mitali Perkins | |
| Surviving the City, Vol. 1 | Tasha Spillett andNatasha Donovan | |||
| Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All | Laura Ruby | |||
| We Set the Dark on Fire | Tehlor Kay Mejia | |||
| Nonfiction | Shout | Laurie Halse Anderson | ||
| 2021[25][26] | Early Readers | Nonfiction | Consent (For Kids!): Boundaries, Respect, and Being in Charge of You | Rachel Brian |
| It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way | Kyo Maclear, illus. byJulie Morstad | |||
| Ritu Weds Chandni | Ameya Narvankar | |||
| Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Doreen Rappaport, illus. byEric Velasquez | |||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Clap When You Land | Elizabeth Acevedo | |
| Red Hood | Elana K. Arnold | |||
| Every Body Looking | Candice Iloh | |||
| Nonfiction | Say Her Name | Zetta Elliot | ||
| Know My Name: A Memoir | Chanel Miller | |||
| 2022[27] | Early Readers | Fiction | Laxmi's Mooch | Shelly Anand, illus. byNabi H. Ali |
| The Big Bath House | Kyo Maclear, illus byGracey Zhang | |||
| Nonfiction | Bodies Are Cool | Tyler Feder | ||
| Young Adult | Fiction | Firekeeper's Daughter | Angeline Boulley | |
| Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Malinda Lo | |||
| Sistersong | Lucy Holland | |||
| So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix | Bethany C. Morrow | |||
| Nonfiction | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century | Alice Wong | ||
| If I Go Missing | Brianna Jonnie withNahanni Shingoose andNeal Shannacappo (art) | |||
| Somebody's Daughter | Ashley C. Ford |